One of the oldest exchanges, it was founded in 2011 by Jesse Powell, Thanh Luu, and Michael Gronager. It was registered with FinCEN, the US body that regulates the licensing activity of financial service providers.
Jesse Powell (CEO of Kraken until 2022) worked at Mt.Gox and planned the creation of the new exchange as its replacement. Mt.Gox went bankrupt in 2014, having previously been a market leader.
In 2020-2022, the exchange regularly received venture capital for development worth over $130 million in total.
Kraken nowadays offers a full range of cryptocurrency trading services, as well as one of the best staking programmes for crypto assets. It has the highest security rating from cer.live – AAA. The assets are confirmed by an independent audit by Armanino.
Following russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the exchange implemented a grant programme for customers in Ukraine, amounting to over $10 million.
At the beginning of 2023, the company agreed to pay $30 million in fines to settle a dispute with the SEC. To date, this is the largest fine in the history of the industry.
