US Crypto Exchange Kraken Launches Stock and ETF Trading

Kraken has started offering stocks and exchange-traded fund trading in certain U.S. states and the District of Columbia, the company announced Monday, adding traditional financial products alongside its core crypto trading features.

San Francisco, California-based Kraken said that trading for U.S. equities is commission-free and would eventually be available to all American investors. 

Over 11,000 stocks and ETFs that trade on the NYSE, NASDAQ, American stock exchanges and others are available on the platform, Kraken said. 

ETFs are popular investment vehicles that give investors exposure to assets via stocks that trade on exchanges. 

“As demand for 24/7 global access grows, clients want a seamless, all-in-one trading experience,” Kraken Co-CEO Arjun Sethi said in a statement. “Expanding into equities is a natural step for us, and paves the way for the tokenization of assets.”

Kraken has been on an upswing in recent weeks amid the more crypto-friendly policies of the Trump administration. 

Last month, the SEC dismissed enforcement actions against Kraken and other major exchanges, filing joint stipulations to drop the cases with prejudice, making the decisions final and not subject to refile. Earlier in March, Kraken announced a $1.5 billion acquisition of futures trading platform NinjaTrader.

The exchange also in March confirmed to Decrypt that it was planning to go public, but would not reveal a timeline.

For now, only clients in New Jersey, Connecticut, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Idaho, Iowa, Rhode Island, Kentucky, Alabama, and Washington, D.C. can trade stocks and ETFs on Kraken. 

The exchange added that it plans to make securities trading available to British, Australian, and European clients. 

Kraken is one of the world’s earliest Bitcoin exchanges and offers trading in most major digital assets. CoinGecko data shows that in the past 24 hours, over $1 billion has been traded on its platform. 

Crypto-focused and traditional finance firms have been ramping up their products and services to meet growing investor demand for digital assets. 

Edited by James Rubin