Kraken continues expansion, acquiring trading platform Cryptowatch

The San Francisco-based bitcoin exchange Kraken recently purchased the popular Bitcoin market chart website Cryptowatch. The popular exchange now includes the distinctive charting interface as part of its website, with the added feature of being able to make trades directly on the page.

As part of the deal Cryptowatch founder Artur Sapek will continue developing the platform and lead the development of Kraken’s new interface. “I’m thrilled to welcome the Cryptowatch trading platform and its founder into the Kraken family,” said Kraken CEO Jesse Powell of the acquisition.

“As the industry’s leading charting tool for traders, we plan to devote more resources and talent to further enhance its offering. And we've purposed the technology to provide a great new charting and trading platform to Kraken clients as the first step in improving our own interface.” - Jesse Powell, Kraken CEO

Cryptowatch describes itself as “a real-time market visualization tool that can customize its interface around your trades.” The platform has become one of the most popular bitcoin charting websites over the last few years. The service reports that it has “thousands of users,” and has grown its user base by 700% in two years. Used by thousands of traders to track Bitcoin’s performance, the announcement claims, the interface displays more than 150 currency pair markets in real-time and includes support for 22 different digital assets.

Cryptowatch’s founder Arthur Sapek began working on the platform in January 2014 from New York. Joining Kraken’s team during the acquisition, he will be focused on growing the platform’s offerings. "In just 2 years Cryptowatch grew into one of the pillars of the digital asset trading community,” Sapek said during the announcement.

Many traders and Bitcoin users already keep the old Cryptowatch interface open on their computers night and day, and current Kraken users may be happy to learn that the exchange has added an upgraded trading interface into their new charts page. Logged-in users can make several different kinds of trades from inside the same window, while the charts remain free to all visitors.

“Cryptowatch will remain free, neutral, and publicly accessible,” Kraken’s announcement stated. “The only difference one should notice as a user is perhaps faster development and more reliable service.”

The login credentials needed to trade are the same as on the existing Kraken trading interface, and both trading interfaces can be used. “We recommend that you just trade on one interface at a time,” the new instructions state, “preferably the new one!”

“Teaming up with an exchange was the natural next step, and Kraken was my first choice. The Kraken team has built a very mature and reliable exchange, and I look forward to working with them to deliver the best trading software in the industry." - Arthur Sapek, Cryptowatch Founder

Despite being based in San Francisco, Kraken has long been the leading exchange for euro-bitcoin trading, currently hosting 47 percent of the global trade volume. The company also offers trading in USD, CAD, JPY, British pounds, and ten digital assets including ether, litecoin, monero, ripple and Zcash.

Since it’s founded in 2011, Kraken has been busy acquiring smaller companies, including the wallet-funding service Glidera, which can be found in popular wallets Airbitz and Mycelium. The company plans to rebrand the service as “Kraken Direct.” The exchange has also acquired three Bitcoin exchanges, Coinsetter, Cavirtex and CleverCoin.

After the fall of MtGox, Kraken gained global fame when it was chosen by the Japanese government to be the court-appointed trustee on behalf of the Bitcoin community for their victim’s claims process. “Kraken is honored to provide support to the Trustee on behalf of the community and Mt.Gox clients,” Powell said at a hearing last May in Tokyo. “We are pleased by today’s announcement and the progress that has been made toward returning clients’ assets. We’ll continue to offer our assistance wherever possible and I look forward a speedy resolution from here.”

The company has also had many firsts in the industry. It was the first bitcoin exchange to have its market data included in the Bloomberg terminal, the first exchange to pass a proof-of-reserves audit using cryptographic proofs, and among the first exchanges to offer leveraged bitcoin margin trading. “It’s a great start to 2017 and I can’t wait to share what else we’ve got in the pipeline,” said Powell during Wednesday’s announcement.

“Cryptowatch is the most recent in a long series of landmark M&A deals over the past year that Kraken has leveraged to expand its global client-base, add new services, and bring highly talented members to its team.” - Powell