In a bold move to capture a chunk of the non-custodial crypto staking market, crypto giant Kraken has announced earlier last night the acquisition of Staked.us.
The amount Kraken paid remains undisclosed, but Kraken CEO and Co-Founder, Jesse Powell, said it’s one of the largest deals in crypto history to date.
Kraken Is The New Powerhouse In Crypto Staking
Kraken already offers crypto staking services to their clients, but those are fully custodial. That means that by staking crypto on Kraken, clients essentially choose to give up their keys and put them in the hands of the company.
Because the idea of letting go of your keys goes somewhat against the ethos of crypto (and what is possibly the 1st commandment of crypto – “Not your keys, not your coins”), Kraken was missing out on part of the crypto staking market.
Well, not anymore.
Staked.us has built its reputation as a high quality and trustworthy provider of staking infrastructure for the more advanced stakers. It is widely considered to be one of the best services in the industry. With Staked.us now becoming part of the Kraken family, the company will be able to build more innovative crypto staking products and bring in new business that was out of reach until now.
“We are excited to add Staked to our portfolio of yield products, which has seen great uptake by a growing population of crypto investors”
Jesse Powell, Kraken CEO
Kraken’s staking business grew a staggering 950% to nearly $16 billion dollars in 2021, which allowed the company to expand their reach in the crypto market. Growing their staking business with the Staked.us deal was their 5th acquisition of the year.
“Kraken clearly shares our commitment to supporting proof-of-stake networks, having a security-first mindset, and unwavering focus on customer experience, which makes them an ideal partner. Combining our businesses will enable us to provide a more seamless experience and expand our product offering to meet our clients’ needs in staking and beyond.”
Tim Ogilvie, Staked CEO
The Staked.us team is expected to carry over and continue their work under the new Kraken leadership.
Kraken: A Story Of Success
Kraken was founded very early in crypto terms – 2011. For context, that’s almost 5 years before Ethereum was created.
Over the next decade, they became the largest global crypto asset platform in the world in terms of euro volume and liquidity. They were also pioneers in crypto staking, being one of the first exchanges in the world to offer custodial crypto staking to clients.
In our opinion, one of the company’s most significant strengths and what separates them from competition is their impeccable support team. To this day, we have yet to see a company with such quick onboarding, timely responses, and great business tools like Kraken. In an industry where complaints about companies providing lacklustre support pop up on Reddit every single day, Kraken is an example of how things should be done on that front.
