Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, which first opened its doors in 2013, is undergoing a round of fundraising that will see shares in the company available for as little as $1,000. The funding run, which is open for a month, has already raised €5.87 million ($6.55 million) in the two days since it went live, meaning the exchange has already reached its minimum threshold.
Round Two for Kraken
Kraken has teamed up with Bnk to the Future, a crypto investment platform that lets accredited investors buy shares in companies within the industry, to offer up equity in the exchange. The target for the fundraiser was €9.13 million ($10.2 million), which it is now well on the way to achieving, showing faith in not just the crypto world itself but also one of its elder statesmen.
The effort marks the second time Kraken has sought external investment, after it offered “a very small, select number of clients” the opportunity to purchase shares at a minimum of $100,000 per investment in December, a move that valued Kraken at $4 billion. This next round of fundraising builds on that strategy but widens the net, with smaller investments from a wider pool of investors now sought.
Keeping up With the Binances
How Kraken intends to use the funds has not been made public, with the only information coming back in December to announce the first round of funding where the exchange said that it was keen on “further aligning interests with our top clients while building a war chest for acquisitions in the bear market…”. These acquisitions began in February when Kraken bought Crypto Facilities, a futures trading startup, for an undisclosed sum though to be in the region of $100 million.
With exchanges such as Binance leading the way in diversifying and growing their operations, it’s clear that Kraken doesn’t want to get left behind and has a plan in place for regaining some of the market share lost to Binance and other platforms since its inception.
