April 14 (Reuters) - German exchange operator Deutsche Boerse said on Tuesday that it had acquired a 200 million dollar stake in US-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken.
The investment is being made through the acquisition of existing shares as part of a secondary market transaction and results in a fully diluted stake of 1.5 %, Deutsche Boerse said.
Deutsche Boerse and Kraken initially announced a partnership in the field of crypto in December 2025.
According to Deutsche Boerse, the investment deepens that partnership, now encompassing regulated crypto, tokenized markets and derivatives, as well as enhanced liquidity for institutional clients across geographies.
In March 2025, Deutsche Boerse announced that it would offer crypto custody and settlement services via Clearstream. In 2024, it launched its own crypto trading platform.
Mainstream exchanges have been increasingly making investments and partnerships in the crypto world. The parent company of the New York Stock Exchange invested in crypto exchange OKX in March and Nasdaq announced a collaboration with Kraken's parent company in the same month.
In March, Kraken became the first digital asset bank to receive a master account at the U.S. Federal Reserve, prompting concerns about transparency and potential financial stability risks.
(Reporting by Simon Ferdinand Eibach and Elizabeth Howcroft, Editing by Friederike Heine and Linda Pasquini)
