Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has closed an $800 million funding round that values the company at $20 billion, with the capital raise featuring a headline-grabbing strategic investment from market-making giant Citadel Securities. The fundraise positions one of the crypto industry's longest-running exchanges for an anticipated public listing next year while signaling that traditional finance heavyweights are increasingly comfortable deploying capital into digital asset infrastructure.
The Wyoming-based exchange announced Tuesday that it raised the capital across two separate tranches over the past two months. The first tranche brought in $600 million from a roster of institutional investors that reads like a who's who of Wall Street and Silicon Valley. Jane Street, DRW Venture Capital, HSG (formerly Sequoia Capital China), Oppenheimer Alternative Investment Management, and Tribe Capital all participated, alongside the family office of Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi. That round closed in September at a $15 billion valuation.
The second tranche came from Citadel Securities, which committed $200 million in a strategic investment that lifted Kraken's valuation to the $20 billion mark. The investment from Ken Griffin's market-making firm represents one of the clearest indications yet that one of Wall Street's most powerful trading operations is warming to digital assets after years of caution stemming from regulatory uncertainty.
Kraken co-CEO Sethi framed the investment as validation of the exchange's long-term strategy. In a statement, he said the investment reflects sustained confidence in Kraken's mission to build trusted, regulated infrastructure for an open financial system. The company aims to create a platform where anyone can trade any asset at any time, he added, articulating an ambition that extends well beyond cryptocurrency into traditional financial instruments.
The fundraise marks a dramatic acceleration in Kraken's capital strategy. Prior to these two recent rounds, the exchange had raised only $27 million in primary capital throughout its history. Founded in 2011 by Jesse Powell and Thanh Luu, Kraken built its business through disciplined growth and sustained profitability rather than aggressive venture funding, a rarity among cryptocurrency exchanges.
For Citadel Securities, the investment signals a meaningful pivot toward digital assets. The firm, which Griffin founded nearly 25 years ago, has historically avoided market-making on crypto exchanges or investing in digital asset companies due to regulatory ambiguity in the United States. That stance began shifting after President Donald Trump assumed office in January 2025 and signaled a more accommodating regulatory environment for the cryptocurrency industry.
In February, Bloomberg reported that Citadel Securities was preparing to become a liquidity provider on major exchanges including Coinbase, Binance, and Crypto.com. The firm planned to initially establish market-making teams outside the United States while monitoring how domestic regulations evolved. The Kraken investment deepens that commitment, moving Citadel from observer to equity stakeholder in one of the industry's largest regulated platforms.
Jim Esposito, president of Citadel Securities, said the firm is excited to support Kraken's continued growth as it helps shape the next chapter of digital innovation in markets. According to the announcement, Citadel Securities will work with Kraken on differentiated liquidity provision, risk management expertise, and market structure insights, bringing to bear the operational knowledge that has made it one of the dominant forces in traditional equities and fixed income markets.
Sethi praised the partnership, noting that Citadel Securities has helped define modern market structure for nearly 25 years by increasing efficiency, transparency, and access for institutional and retail investors alike. The collaboration suggests Kraken views traditional finance expertise as essential to its expansion plans, particularly as it moves deeper into derivatives and multi-asset trading.
The fresh capital arrives at a moment when Kraken has been aggressively expanding through acquisitions. In March, the exchange announced it would acquire NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion, a deal described at the time as the largest ever combining traditional finance and crypto. NinjaTrader, founded in 2003, provides advanced futures trading tools to nearly two million traders and operates as a Commodity Futures Trading Commission-registered Futures Commission Merchant. The acquisition gave Kraken the regulatory infrastructure to offer cryptocurrency futures and derivatives directly to U.S. clients.
In October, Kraken continued its derivatives push by purchasing Small Exchange from IG Group for $100 million. Small Exchange holds a CFTC license as a Designated Contract Market, enabling Kraken to design and create markets for exchange-listed derivatives onshore. The acquisition laid the foundation for what Kraken describes as a fully U.S.-native derivatives product suite that integrates spot, futures, and margin products within a single regulated liquidity system.
These moves reflect Kraken's strategic bet that the future of crypto exchanges lies in multi-asset capabilities. The company has also launched tokenized equities trading, rolled out a consumer payments application called KRAK, and introduced Kraken Pay for borderless transactions across more than 300 currencies.
The financials support the expansion thesis. Kraken reported $472 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2025, representing a 19 percent increase year-over-year despite a softening crypto market following an unusually active fourth quarter in 2024. Adjusted EBITDA rose 17 percent to $187 million, while total exchange trading volume grew 29 percent and funded accounts increased 26 percent.
The exchange generated $1.5 billion in revenue during 2024 and had already surpassed that figure within the first three quarters of 2025, according to its announcement. In 2024, Kraken handled $665 billion in trading volume and managed $42.8 billion in client assets, metrics that position it among the largest crypto exchanges globally even as it has historically played second fiddle to Coinbase in U.S. brand recognition.
With the new capital, Kraken plans to expand into Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company will also deepen its regulatory footprint across existing markets, pursue additional licenses, and develop new products spanning advanced trading tools, broader staking options, and enhanced institutional services.
The funding positions Kraken for an initial public offering that co-CEO Sethi has indicated the company plans to pursue in 2026, though he has also signaled patience about timing. In November, he noted that Kraken has enough capital on its balance sheet as a private company and does not want to rush to the public markets. The comment suggests Kraken will time its debut to favorable conditions rather than forcing a listing amid uncertain market dynamics.
The Citadel Securities investment arrives against a backdrop of broader institutional adoption in crypto markets. Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have attracted billions of dollars from large investors since launching in January 2024, while major financial institutions have steadily built out digital asset capabilities. Earlier this month, Ripple announced a $500 million funding round that included participation from both Citadel and Fortress Investment Group, another sign that Wall Street's biggest names are taking equity positions in crypto infrastructure.
For the digital asset industry, the Kraken raise signals that major market makers see lasting demand for regulated trading venues even after a brutal bear market in 2022 and high-profile failures including the collapse of FTX. Citadel Securities' $200 million bet on Kraken suggests confidence that exchanges offering institutional-grade compliance, deep liquidity, and multi-asset capabilities will capture an outsized share of activity as the market matures.
As Kraken prepares for public markets and traditional finance giants deepen their crypto exposure, the lines between digital assets and legacy financial infrastructure continue to blur. Whether that convergence reshapes how Americans trade stocks, futures, and cryptocurrencies may depend significantly on companies like Kraken executing on their multi-asset ambitions.