Kraken Takes Over Australian Brokerage Bit Trade

U.S.-based crypto exchange Kraken has finalized its takeover of Australia’s Bit Trade which brands itself as the country’s longest-running cryptocurrency financial services company.

Bit Trade says it operates a blockchain asset investment and portfolio management platform, enabling customers with access to a number of crypto exchanges with the use of the company’s over-the-counter trading desk which it boasts as one of the largest in Australia.

“With the acquisition of Bit Trade, Kraken will focus on being the premier crypto service in Australia with the best AUD liquidity, trading experience, and support for both institutional and retail clients. It also deepens Kraken’s overall presence in the APAC region, and further bolsters its industry-leading OTC trading operation, which acquired Circle Trade, one of the most recognized OTC desks in crypto last month,” Kraken said in a press release. “The entire Bit Trade team will join Kraken as part of the acquisition, led by Jonathon Miller, who will become Managing Director for Kraken in Australia.

Kraken did not provide any further details about the transaction.

Bit Trade trades in bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), litecoin (LTC), XRP, stellar (XLM), and bitcoin cash (BCH). For BTC, the exchange says it has “a minimum order size of AUD 100 (AUD 20 for bill payment and sell orders) and a daily maximum order size of AUD 50,000.”

As of 13:56 UCT, Kraken had a 24-hour trade volume of about USD 368 million, offering 29 coins to its customers, accepting the following fiat currencies: USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, and JPY. These numbers place Kraken roughly in the top 50 of global crypto exchanges. The business traded USD 50 billion worth of crypto in 2019, and has more than 4 million customers in 190 countries, according to the company.