Kraken is making moves to expand its platform. The cryptocurrency exchange announced on February 4 that they have purchased Crypto Facilities, a cryptocurrency trading platform based in the United Kingdom.
In a tweet, Kraken announced the deal would bring futures trading to their customers, making them the first exchange to offer both spot and future trading. They also prominently noted that the deal clocked in at nine figures, or in other words, at least $100 million.
Crypto Facilities is based out of London, and was the first regulated company to offer Bitcoin Core (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCHABC) futures in the United Kingdom.
Kraken is keen to note that the deal will fully bring in the Crypto Facilities staff into the fold, with no layoffs. Kraken CEO Jesse Powell said in a press release, “Over the coming months, our teams will continue to enhance and expand these offerings. We’ve got great stuff in store for traders and institutional clients in 2019.”
Timo Schlaefer, Crypto Facilities CEO and founder, is also happy with the deal, saying, “Teaming up with Kraken allows us to innovate the next generation of products and tremendously boosts the value we are able to provide to our clients.”
Kraken, backed by bitcoin.com’s owner Roger Ver, still has a lawsuit pending in the state of Florida against both the company and its CEO. In that suit, United American Corp is accusing Kraken, Ver, and others of manipulating the crypto currency market in the events that surrounded the November 15 hard fork of Bitcoin Cash that saw Bitcoin reborn as Bitcoin SV (BSV).
The exchange very publically bet on BCH at the time, and declared that BSV would fail. They even made shady moves to harm BSV investors in the aftermath of the form. Of course, BSV still has not failed, and it only served to add more evidence in the lawsuit against them.
Kraken has tried to ignore that lawsuit, however by all evidence, it appears to be pushing forward.
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