Kraken – one of the world’s largest Bitcoin, Ethereum and digital asset exchanges – has announced an investment from Money Partners Group, one of Japan’s leading foreign exchange brokerages, as part of Kraken’s Series B financing round.
While Kraken didn’t disclose the size or terms of the Money Partners Group investment, we believe it is in the multi-million dollar range.
Tokyo-based Money Partners Group is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and has a current market cap of over ¥29 billion (about USD $260 million).
We reported back in February that SBI Investment, a Japanese venture capital group, had made a multi-million dollar investment to lead Kraken’s Series B round of financing.
The investment from Money Partners Group comes as Kraken is on a serious growth track, which has also seen Kraken consolidate the Bitcoin exchange sector by buying rivals Coinsetter and Cavirtex, two of the oldest and most prominent digital currency exchanges in North America.
Including the acquisitions, Kraken reports that it has experienced a 4x rise in new client accounts over Q4 2015.
One of the largest foreign exchange brokerages in Japan, Money Partners Group offers services in FX, securities trading and CFD to its network of over 270,000 client accounts. Today, Money Partners Group announced the furthering of a business alliance with Kraken to offer bitcoin trading, bitcoin settlement service, and blockchain-based derivative trading to its clients. In addition, Money Partners Group’s investment is intended to enhance Kraken’s global presence.
Money Partners Group President and Representative Director Taizen Okuyama said:
Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology will bring about a future in which digital and digitized assets are commonplace. Money Partners Group is dedicated to staying on the cutting edge of finance, and bringing new, exciting opportunities to our clients. The movements behind Bitcoin and Ethereum have grown too large to ignore. Kraken is an industry veteran with demonstrated leadership, a professional management team, a strong compliance program and world-class technology. They are the ideal partner for diving into this new ecosystem. We’re excited about what advantages this partnership with Kraken will bring to Money Partners Group and our global clients.
Commenting on today’s announcement, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell said:
This investment from Money Partners Group is more validation that our long-game approach to the digital asset exchange business has been the right strategy. Established players in financial services want a partner that knows what they’re doing and delivers — that’s why they choose Kraken. We are pleased to have such a visionary and experienced partner in our business. Our new relationship with Money Partners Group is a huge win for Bitcoin and Ethereum awareness and adoption around the world. The results we will achieve together will show other financial institutions why they should embrace digital assets and blockchain technologies.
Already the leading bitcoin/euro exchange globally, Kraken has grown at a breakneck pace since the exchange acquisitions, seeing 10x increase in XBT/USD, 30x increase in XBT/CAD, 15x increase in XBT/JPY and 5x increase in XBT/GBP. As Ethereum prices have skyrocketed, ETH trading has increased by 5x across all supported currencies in the first few months of 2016.