Kraken acquires Australian cryptocurrency exchange

San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is expanding into Australia via the acquisition of a domestic crypto exchange, the firm confirmed to The Block. 

The exchange announced Tuesday that it acquired Australia-based Bit Trade, one of the longest-running crypto companies in the country. The deal follows Kraken's acquisition of Circle Trade, which closed at the end of 2019. 

Together, the two acquisitions will allow Kraken to expand its presence into the Asia-Pacific regions of the crypto world.

Bit Trade operates a so-called multi-exchange aggregator, which combines liquidity from several exchanges into one interface. 

As such, the deal will enable Kraken to offer its customers a more robust trading experience, enabling them to route orders to various pools of liquidity, according to Kraken.  

Coinbase held acquisition talks with Tagomi, a prime brokerage firm, in what would have been a similar deal, as The Block first reported. 

The Bit Trade deal brings Kraken's total number of public acquisitions to five for 2019 and 2020. Last year, in a "nine-figure deal," Kraken acquired Crypto Facilities, which it rebranded as Kraken Futures. In total, the firm has publicized 10 acquisitions since its founding.

Following are Kraken's deals from 2019 and 2020:

As part of the Bit Trade acquisition, Kraken is bringing on Jonathon Miller as a managing director for Kraken in Australia. 

Kraken sees $126 million trade on its venue during a 24-hour period. 

Editor's note: This post has been updated to reflect that Kraken made 10 of its acquisitions public, not 5.