(Bloomberg) -- Kraken is acquiring retail futures trading platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion, allowing the crypto exchange to offer crypto futures and derivatives in the US for the first time and to expand into more traditional markets.
NinjaTrader, which is majority-backed by Long Ridge Equity Partners, is registered as a Futures Commission Merchant with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Kraken said in a statement Thursday. The transaction is subject to certain purchase price adjustments.
The acquisition also accelerates Kraken’s plans for equities trading and payments, the firm said. Founded in 2003, NinjaTrader provides futures trading tools to nearly two million users.
NinjaTrader will continue to operate as a standalone business, Kraken said. Kraken’s own licenses across the UK, Europe and Australia will help accelerate NinjaTrader’s expansion in those regions, it added.
“This transaction is the first step in our vision of an institutional-grade trading platform where any asset can be traded, anytime,” said Arjun Sethi, Kraken’s co-chief executive officer.
Expected to close in the first half of 2025, the deal was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal. PJT Partners served as financial adviser to Kraken, and Jones Day and Lowenstein Sandler served as legal advisers. Jefferies LLC acted as financial adviser to NinjaTrader and Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP and Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP served as legal advisers.
Known officially as Payward Inc., Kraken is readying plans to go public as soon as the first quarter of next year, amid a friendlier regulatory climate in the US under President Donald Trump.
The company was one of a number of major crypto firms that said they faced targeted enforcement action under the Biden Administration. Kraken settled one case from the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 2023 and continued to fight another case until the agency agreed to drop it earlier this month, with no charges or penalties.
(Adds legal and financial advisers in the sixth paragraph.)