2020 proved a wild year for digital asset investors as prices swung from steep lows to all-time highs, but Kraken navigated a steady course and continued to shepherd industry growth.

As you prepare for the year ahead (one our VIP clients think will bring no shortage of opportunities), we’d like to revisit our major milestones.

Global Expansion

There is a paradigm shift underway in the financial ecosystem. The way we transact and interact with money is changing. Access to the financial system is being democratized and new participants are entering the marketplace.

In response, Kraken is serving to meet the needs of everyone worldwide, and some examples of that include our launch in both Japan and Australia (bringing the number of countries we service to 190), as well as our addition of new fiat onramps.

Perhaps one of the most exciting developments was when we earned a banking charter in the state of Wyoming. Expect several important updates next year as we build out the world’s first digital asset bank and revolutionize the financial services industry.

Giving Back

Growth in the digital asset industry doesn’t start or end with Kraken. We recognize the work of blockchain developers often goes unheralded and that far too many great projects do not get the funding they need.

We are on a mission to change that and so awarded over $500,000 in grants in 2020 – including to top projects like Brink, BTCPay and Gitcoin – while providing full-time employment to several developers.

Next year, we plan to exceed those totals and will continue investing in the incredible efforts that are driving these new technologies.

Keeping Pace

Let’s be honest – the world of cryptocurrency moves fast, and it can be a full-time job just to keep up with the pace of change.

Among the many developments this year, we think our Ethereum 2.0 staking service and new Lightning Network team will bring the benefits of industry innovation to our clients in 2021, sometimes in ways even we won’t be able to predict.

Expect announcements ahead as we seek to offer the latest and greatest in new tokens, especially those serving decentralized finance use cases targeting the underbanked.

Not up to speed on these groundbreaking advancements? Our research team knows that knowledge is power and that is why they deliver insightful content regularly to you – free of charge. Sign up for our free daily newsletters to stay informed.

In the News

Adoption is essential to the success of digital assets, and that means Kraken is working hard to shape a strong narrative for our industry.

Major institutions like PayPal, Square and MassMutual, as well as prestige investors like Paul Tudor Jones and Michael Saylor, made significant public Bitcoin purchases in 2020.

To help clients understand these developments, we launched a live webinar series, with Saylor even joining our Dan Held to discuss why he is converting such a large position of his corporate treasury to Bitcoin.

But our internal experts were regularly on top news sources as well.

Our CEO Jesse Powell is one of the first voices the press turn to when cryptocurrency is in the news. In fact, Jesse’s impact is so far-reaching leading industry publication Coindesk recognized him as one of their ‘Most Influential in 2020.’

New Faces

Being a best-in-class digital asset exchange requires the efforts of many talented people. We’ve been fortunate to add some amazing talent in 2020.

There have been hundreds of new team members added to the Kraken family and we introduced you to a few of them as they joined over the course of the year.

• Miha Grcar – Our Head of Business Development
• Jonathan Miller – Our Managing Director of Australia
• Pete Rizzo – Our Editor-at-Large
• Marco Santori – Our Chief Legal Officer
• Jeremy Welch – Our VP of Product

Team Kraken currently stands at over 1,200 unique and passionate cryptocurrency enthusiasts who work every day to ensure the development of the digital asset industry and most of all make your experience as enjoyable as possible.

If you would like to join our family, we encourage you to take a look at our openings.

Thank you so much for being a loyal part of the Kraken community. We look forward to serving you in what hopes to be an incredible 2021!