Crypto exchange Kraken completes acquisition of Staked

The deal marks the fifth of Kraken’s acquisitions this year, which have contributed to the 950% growth seen this year, according to the company

Crypto exchange Kraken said on Tuesday that it had completed the acquisition of Staked, a US-based non-custodial staking platform. Though the company did not reveal further details on the financials around the deal, it held that it was “one of the largest crypto industry acquisitions to date.”

With this new venture, Kraken plans to expand support for proof-of-stake networks and avail new innovative products on its platform for its customers.

Staked employees will remain onboard

Further, Staked CEO Tim Oglivie and his entire team would continue to work as part of the business.  Kraken’s CEO and co-founder Jesse Powell spoke of the deal, voicing his excitement on Staked as one of the standout yield products as it has seen significant uptake from a considerable portion of crypto investors.

Welcoming Staked’s client base to its new home, he explained that Staked offered a highly complementary addition to Kraken’s business model. As such, it would facilitate the crypto exchange in reinforcing its product offering for customers that would keep hold of their staked assets.

“We’re excited to welcome Staked’s clients to Kraken and believe that they will benefit from access to our wider portfolio of products as they seek to broaden their engagement with digital assets.”

Staked offers customers non-custodial staking by which users can earn yield from their crypto assets without the need to necessarily relinquish them. Its incorporation would therefore complement Kraken’s custodial staking. Moreover, Staked gets to join an exchange with world-class infrastructure that optimizes user experience and eliminates the weighty barriers of entry.

Kraken has been adding crypto entities to its portfolio

Kraken’s staking business has seen some significant growth over the course of the year, recording a more than 950% growth in the period reaching November.  The exchange’s staking business clocked $16 billion, with its clients receiving staking yields worth more than $500 million.

Noteworthy, Kraken’s endeavors into acquisitions and investments have played an enormous part in this growth. Over the last few years, the company has added Bit Trade, Circle Trade, CryptoFacilities, CryptoWatch, and other crypto companies onto its portfolio. Staked being  the company’s fifth acquisition this year, Powell said that the company’s business has now evolved to offer something more to customers than just the custodial and trading services.

“We’ve become a holistic crypto platform with a diverse range of products that serves the needs of retail, professional, and institutional clients. Heading into the second decade in our company’s history, I’m excited about the future and Kraken’s continued support of the world’s shift to Web3 and DeFi.”

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3 Best undervalued altcoins on Solana to buy in 2022

Solana (SOL) is a fully decentralised public blockchain that allows the launch and development of scalable DApps. It is regarded as one of the fastest blockchains in the world, with relatively lower gas fees. Solana has also been oftentimes compared to Ethereum. Here are some highlights:

  • So far, over 400 new projects have launched on Solana, with more expected to come

  • Solana is also highly scalable, and its network is associated with low gas fees

  • It is also regarded as one of the fastest blockchains in the world

So, what are some of the most exciting projects on Solana for investors? Here is a pick of the top 2 today:

Serum (SRM)

Serum (SRM) is a decentralised exchange (DEX) and DApp ecosystem designed to deliver exceptional transaction speeds and low fees. Built on Solana, the DEX is completely permissionless and non-custodial. SRM is the native token for the Serum DEX. It is used for governance and platform transactions. 

Data Source: Tradingview.com

At the time of publishing, SRM was trading at $3.43, which is significantly undervalued. Decentralised exchanges are expected to grow in the coming years. Besides, with the speed and scalability of Solana, and the development of a robust Serum ecosystem, the future prospects of SRM look quite positive.

Saber (SBR)

Saber (SBR) is an automated market maker designed to facilitate the exchange of crypto assets on Solana. The platform allows users to swap various assets, including stablecoins. It also has liquidity pools and yield farms to help investors maximise returns. 

SBR is its native token and even though at the time of writing the coin was trading way below its all-time highs this year, there is a lot of growth potential in the near term. The token was trading at $0.06407, with a market cap of around $632 million.

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