Kraken, the US-based cryptocurrency exchange just completed its acquisition of Bit Trade, one of the first crypto exchanges in Australia.

A press release sent out by Kraken to news organizations on January 14th indicates that it just recently purchased Bit Trade. Bit Trade happens to be one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges in Australia, which was launched in 2013.

At the moment, it’s expected that the official Bit Trade website will still continue trading and operating in the same manner that it has since its inception. A Kraken company representative explained this development to Cointelegraph and went on to note that:

“In the short term, Bit Trade will continue under its current brand and operate business as usual. As part of the acquisition, we are pleased to welcome the Bit Trade team led by Jonathon Miller who will be Managing Director for Kraken in Australia.”

By taking over Bit Trade, Kraken is repositioning itself to become the leading cryptocurrency solution in the Australian market. The press release by Kraken went on to state that this is an area of the world that has continued to show a lot of potential for growth and expansion.

Bit Trade’s new owners are looking to cater to both institutional and retail traders, even as they begin hosting trade liquidity that will be pegged on the AUD (Australian dollar). In addition, this new acquisition by Kraken has also helped to add on to Kraken’s OTC (over the counter) trading abilities.

This new development will eventually lead to the merging of the two company’s operations. Kraken went on to explain that harnessing the operation of its various exchanges means that its clients will now be provided with a more enhanced product.

The Bit Trade purchase also means that clients in the Australian market are now in a position to access the sizable OTC products being offered by Kraken. Kraken had in late December announced that it had taken over Circle’s OTC desk.

This came about as the latter chose to move its operations to USDC (stablecoin, USD coin).

150 +