Kraken has made a decisive move into the American derivatives market with the $100 million acquisition of Small Exchange, a CFTC-regulated contract market previously owned by IG Group.

The purchase grants Kraken one of the few licenses in the U.S. allowing a crypto platform to build and list its own regulated derivatives products.

Co-CEO Arjun Sethi said the deal paves the way for a unified trading framework where clearing, risk management, and execution all operate under a single regulated environment. The integration of Small Exchange will allow Kraken to connect spot, margin, and futures trading, streamlining liquidity and reducing capital friction for institutional clients.

This acquisition follows Kraken’s earlier expansion into futures through its $1.5 billion NinjaTrader purchase, which opened access to CME-listed crypto contracts, and builds on existing operations in the U.K. and EU, where Kraken runs licensed derivatives platforms under MiFID II.

The move comes as the global derivatives market outpaces spot trading. Research from TokenInsight shows derivatives volumes hit $20.2 trillion in Q2 2025, while spot activity fell by over 20%. Analysts expect the figure to climb to $23 trillion by year’s end, driven by institutional adoption.

Competitors like Coinbase and CME Group are expanding in the same space, but Kraken’s latest purchase positions it to compete head-on with both traditional and crypto-native exchanges, completing a five-year effort that began with its 2019 acquisition of Crypto Facilities.