Kraken has taken a major step toward expanding its U.S. presence, announcing the $100 million acquisition of Small Exchange, a CFTC-licensed Designated Contract Market (DCM), from IG Group. The move positions Kraken to launch a fully U.S.-native derivatives suite, establishing one of the most sophisticated onshore trading venues in the crypto industry’s history.
With this acquisition, Kraken becomes one of the few global crypto firms to operate regulated derivatives markets across the U.S., U.K., and E.U., aligning its infrastructure with the world’s largest traditional exchanges.
Building the foundation for U.S. crypto derivatives
A DCM license allows Kraken, under Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) oversight, to create and operate markets for exchange-listed derivatives within the United States. This marks a key milestone for the exchange’s goal of unifying spot, futures, and margin trading under one regulatory framework.
“Kraken’s acquisition of a CFTC-regulated Designated Contract Market creates the foundation for a new generation of United States derivatives markets,” said Arjun Sethi, Kraken’s co-CEO.
“This step connects spot, futures, and margin products inside a single regulated liquidity system, reducing fragmentation, lowering funding latency, and bringing onshore the kind of access and performance that has mostly existed offshore.”
Sethi emphasized that this acquisition is not just about expansion, but about building better market structure, integrating clearing, risk management, and matching engines in a compliant environment designed for institutional-grade performance.
Expanding global infrastructure
The acquisition of Small Exchange builds upon Kraken’s multi-year global derivatives strategy. In 2019, the exchange purchased Crypto Facilities, a U.K.-based FCA-regulated Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF), which became the backbone of Europe’s largest regulated crypto futures platform under MiFID II.
In the U.S., Kraken made waves earlier this year by acquiring NinjaTrader, a leading futures platform that gave its American clients access to CME-listed cryptocurrency futures alongside spot crypto. By October, Kraken expanded the offering further to include contracts tied to equities, FX indices, and commodities such as oil and gold.
Now, with Small Exchange under its umbrella, Kraken can integrate real-time collateral movement, cross-jurisdictional exposure netting, and capital efficiency mechanisms, key features that have long defined top-tier derivatives markets.
Institutional readiness for a maturing crypto market
The move reinforces Kraken’s long-term strategy to bridge traditional finance and digital assets by offering transparent, regulated, and scalable derivatives infrastructure. The firm now operates across six fiat currencies and more than 450 digital and traditional assets, providing the foundation for institutional investors to access crypto exposure under familiar regulatory standards.
“This is not about marketing or narrative,” Sethi added. “It’s about building the infrastructure needed to support a mature, efficient, and compliant derivatives market in the U.S. and beyond.”
As crypto markets evolve, Kraken’s expansion reflects a broader trend of bringing offshore-grade liquidity and innovation into regulated U.S. frameworks, signaling that the next phase of growth for digital assets will be built on compliance, integration, and institutional depth.
