Kraken
“Can a crypto exchange become a full-stack global financial platform — owning payments rails, card issuing, lending, and stablecoin infrastructure — at the intersection of traditional finance and crypto?”
Founded in 2011 as a pure cryptocurrency exchange, Kraken gradually expanded from spot trading into futures, margin, OTC, and staking. The company's strategic inflection point came with its first-of-kind bank charter and the launch of Krak — a consumer global money app combining multi-currency accounts, cashback cards, and cross-border payments — signaling a deliberate move toward becoming a full-service financial platform for crypto-native users. The 2026 acquisition of Reap positions Kraken to own stablecoin-native card issuing and cross-border settlement infrastructure, deepening its embedded finance stack ahead of a pending IPO.