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Kraken Acquires Retail Futures NinjaTrader $1.5B
Crypto M&A | March 21, 2025
Image: Freepik/wirestock
Crypto Continues to Woo Wall Street, Turning Point for Retail Futures Trading
On March 20 2025, Kraken announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion, a Chicago-based platform know for providing everyday retail traders access to futures markets, the largest crypto and TradFi deal to date.
Why This Deal Is Different
At first glance, it might seem like U.S. retail traders already have access to both crypto and traditional futures—and technically, they do. For instance, platforms like Interactive Brokers let you trade Bitcoin and oil futures listed on the CME but this experience is still rooted in the traditional finance world. You’re using a conventional brokerage interface with separate workflows for spot crypto and regulated futures, and often without native crypto funding or wallet integration. Coinbase offers small-sized crypto futures (limited derivatives), but you can’t use the same account to trade traditional commodities or financial futures. And many crypto-native platforms don’t offer access to regulated futures at all, especially not in the U.S.
See: CFTC to Launch Digital Asset Pilot Under Acting Chair Pham
What Kraken is building through its acquisition of NinjaTrader is a more integrated setup because they are acquiring a registered Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) license from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which allows them to combine regulated futures access with crypto native infrastructure, all under a single app, account, and compliance framework. So Kraken becomes a direct gateway to both crypto and traditional derivatives - a 'one stop shop' for trading everything from Bitcoin to corn futures under a fully regulated setup.
Also there's a global market expansion benefit. Kraken already has licenses in the U.K., Europe, and Australia. Now, with NinjaTrader's U.S. footprint, Kraken can roll out a consistent product across multiple jurisdictions which is something very few companies can do in either the crypto or traditional finance world.
Implications for the Market
This acquisition brings two trading world's together that have mostly stayed separate until now: (1) Crypto trading which is 24/7, quick settlement and lots of innovation (but often kept at arms lengths by U.S. regulators); an (2) Traditional futures trading - highly regulated, slower, and not always that easy for retail traders to access.
Kraken is trying to bridge the gap by creating a unified experience with a single login/dash/account that can hold crypto and cash, offering futures/crypto/FX tools and more, all in one place with real-time settlement and potentially better pricing. It will simplify a lot of friction for retail traders and for professionals, it opens up cross-asset strategies that were harder to execute across multiple platforms before.
See: SEC Drops Yuga Labs Investigation and Kraken Case
Arjun Sethi, Kraken co-CEO:
“Traditional markets run on post-WWII, 1950s banking systems, exchanges that close at 4 p.m. ET and settlement delays that take days to resolve. Crypto rails fixed these issues, operating with efficient and real-time infrastructure. But legacy finance and crypto have remained separate ecosystems, until today. This transaction is the first step in our vision of an institutional-grade trading platform where any asset can be traded, anytime,”
Why It Matters
Kraken’s move to buy NinjaTrader is highly strategic and proves that fintech crypto pltforms can evolve beyond niche products and become full service, bridging traditional finance and crypto. Will Canadian crypto trading platforms be allowed to offer a similar one-stop-shop trading experience, and will Canadian regulators support it?
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