Quick take:
- The app provides users with a dedicated spend account, allowing them to send and request payments across 300 assets.
- The move expands Kraken’s scope of business beyond trading services.
- The company recently announced plans to introduce tokenised U.S. stocks trading service dubbed xStocks, in select markets outside of the U.S.
Crypto exchange company Kraken, has launched Krak, a peer-to-peer payments app that supports both crypto and fiat currencies. It enables users to send and receive money- in both crypto and fiat currency across more than 100 countries, putting it in direct competition with the likes of PayPal, Venmo, and CashApp.
Krak is initially providing users with a dedicated spend account that allows them to send and request payments across 300 assets, including cryptocurrencies and local currencies. As part of the company’s long-term plan for the app, Kraken said it will in the future introduce physical and virtual cards as well as pay-in-advance services like loans.
“Crypto transfers will be made using blockchain technology, while Kraken will make cash transfers internally without using external banking infrastructure,” the company said in the announcement on Thursday.
“We’re able to move money across borders right off the bat, because that’s what we do from a trading perspective in our venues, and we’ve actually already spent over 10 years building out that system for money transmitter licenses… in all the jurisdictions,” Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Kraken, told Reuters in an interview.
The announcement follows Kraken’s recent announcement that it plans to introduce tokenised U.S. stocks trading service dubbed xStocks, in select markets outside of the U.S. The app expands the company’s scope of business beyond trading services, and comes as it prepares an initial public offering of its stock in the U.S.
The company ahs also launched Kraken Prime, a prime brokerage platform that targets institutional investors, and will support among other services, asset-backed lending, T+1 facilities and an in-house smart order routing system.
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