Now greater than ever, Kraken remains deeply committed to Canada.
However our dedication to the Nice White North isn’t simply hype. It’s a relationship that stretches again to the earliest days of Bitcoin itself.
The early years
Kraken’s Canada story begins in 2011 – the yr CaVirtEx, an early Canadian crypto buying and selling platform primarily based in Calgary, first opened its doorways. CaVirtEx was busy sustaining the infrastructure that facilitated the earliest Canadian greenback (CAD) to bitcoin (BTC) trades. Proper across the similar time, we had been discovering our personal sea legs as one of many earliest crypto buying and selling platforms in the US.
Like most Canadian crypto buying and selling platforms, CaVirtEx confronted challenges discovering dependable banking companions. Nonetheless, the crew managed to determine connections with many native banks and develop a dependable option to execute fiat-to-crypto transfers. By CaVirtEx, Canadians started their crypto journey and found the potential of decentralization by way of Bitcoin. CaVirtEx constructed a dependable option to bridge conventional finance with the rising cryptocurrency business.
The corporate was small however mighty, providing buying and selling providers for the nascent Canadian crypto business. CaVirtEx quickly constructed a status as a significant participant in Canada. Nonetheless, a security breach and a bear market forced the location offline. This in the end led to an acquisition by CoinSetter, who helped enhance CaVirtEx’s safety posture earlier than subsuming the platform’s know-how and clients.
Kraken lands in Canada
In January 2016, Kraken purchased CoinSetter, and within the course of acquired CaVirtEx and its purchasers. The mixing was seamless, as CaVirtEx staff moved into main roles in compliance, banking and even customer support. Kraken launched a small workplace in Halifax the place early crypto adopters started organizing occasions and internet hosting meetups.
On the time of the acquisition, CoinSetter/CaVirtEx supported 37 U.S. states in addition to the Canadian area with a strong providing for an early crypto buying and selling platform. One early CaVirtEx worker, who nonetheless works for Kraken, recalled the early days in Halifax fondly:
“We had enjoyable. It was a very enjoyable ambiance. It was additionally essential for Halifax to have a innovative fintech firm. It was an enormous profit to the folks primarily based right here to have publicity to Kraken. The general public there had beforehand had no publicity to and no understanding, actually, about monetary providers.”
Halifax grew to become a hotbed for fintech as Kraken grew and expanded in Nova Scotia. In reality, Kraken succeeded in Canada with none promotion or promoting. Phrase of mouth about our cutting-edge operation echoed by way of on-line boards and in-person meetups. Early Canadian crypto adopters had been properly conscious of the importance of the motion.
Our Canadian dedication
Regardless of regulatory headwinds and a number of bear markets, Kraken has stayed dedicated to Canadians through the years. Our Pre-Registration Enterprise (PRU) with the Ontario Securities Fee alerts our dedication to enhanced investor safety steerage.
We’ve lengthy understood the significance of growing practices that place our purchasers first and improve the long run potential of our business. “Kraken in Canada succeeded on account of being early within the house and having nice companions,” mentioned one other early worker. “We’re proud to have a powerful status with Canadians.”
Right this moment, there are over 250 Canadian Krakenites and we’re well-known for our transparency, safety and nice customer support. We additionally provide 5 native spot pairs in CAD, one thing few crypto platforms can declare.
Kraken providers proceed to be obtainable in Canada and we stay dedicated to serving to Canadians obtain monetary freedom and inclusion. Now greater than ever, Kraken is right here to help Canadians seeking to harness the transformative energy of cryptocurrency and blockchain know-how.
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