Kraken seeks targets in Europe
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The American exchange platform, which has no local registration in Europe, is reportedly looking to get its hands on a regulated player.

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Most crypto players know this: periods of "Bear Market" are also when there are buyback opportunities. Especially when you're a heavyweight player like... Kraken 🐙.

According to our information, the US platform, the world's third biggest player on the spot market (behind Binance and Coinbase), is considering potential acquisitions in Europe.

"They've approached us about a buyout," confides a regulated French player. "Kraken is looking at what's happening in France and Europe", confirms a lawyer.


Kraken, which was founded in 2011, has already had a presence in Europe for years. In particular, the company has offices in Berlin, which act as its informal European headquarters.

But it would appear that the company would like to accelerate on the Old Continent and the arrival of the European MiCA regulation has not helped: from the end of 2024, Kraken will absolutely have to comply with MiCA to continue operating in the 27 member countries of the European Union; until now, the platform has not held any local registrations... The acquisition of a regulated European player could speed things up. 🇪🇺

This move could also be linked to the regulatory context in the United States. Kraken announced a few weeks ago that it was shutting down its staking service due to an investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Contacted, the platform did not wish to react.

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Grégory Raymond

Grégory Raymond is Head of Research and co-founder of The Big Whale. A specialist at the intersection of traditional finance and digital assets, he has been covering the regulatory, institutional and technological developments of the sector since 2017 for an audience of decision-makers: ,banks, asset managers and fintechs. He is also the author of Bitcoin & Cryptos: L'enjeu du siècle (Talent Éditions, 2025), a book built around interviews with key figures from the ecosystem.

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Raphaël Bloch

Raphaël Bloch is CEO and co-founder of The Big Whale, an independent market intelligence platform on digital assets serving financial market participants through editorial coverage, research, a weekly briefing, and in-person events. He co-founded The Big Whale in April 2022. At the platform, he moderates and hosts institutional events bringing together banks, asset managers, custodians, and infrastructure providers on topics including staking, on-chain yield, stablecoins, DeFi lending, and tokenisation. He has moderated panels at events hosted in partnership with Bitwise, Everstake, Gemini, Morpho, Hexarq, Coinhouse, Delubac, Franklin Templeton, and the Ethereum Foundation, held in London and Paris between late 2025 and mid-2026.

Before founding The Big Whale, Bloch worked as a reporter at Les Echos from December 2016 to March 2020, then at L'Express from March 2020 to March 2022. He also previously worked at Reuters. Since September 2022, he has held a concurrent role as Business Analyst at BFM Business. He has been active in crypto journalism since 2016. He holds degrees from emlyon and the CFJ.

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