Kraken rolled out CFTC-regulated crypto spot margin trading for U.S. retail users, days after its parent company acquired the Bitnomial derivatives platform. This kind of offering has been mostly unavailable to retail users in the U.S., pushing them instead to offshore platforms.
"That gap pushed activity offshore, to unregulated venues with none of the protections that come with a regulated market," Kraken said in a Wednesday blog post covering the rollout.
Kraken said users can trade with up to 10x leverage by using their crypto holdings as collateral, without needing to sell them outright.
"Margin is a foundational component of global crypto markets, enabling more efficient capital deployment and a broader range of trading strategies," Kraken Pro Head Darius Tabatabai said in a statement. "For too long, U.S. traders have been excluded from accessing this functionality in a regulated environment."
The launch follows Monday's announcement that Kraken's parent company, Payward, completed its acquisition of Bitnomial, a Chicago-based crypto derivatives exchange that holds CFTC-issued merchant, contract, and clearing licenses. Payward said the acquisition would allow it to eventually offer regulated spot margin, perpetual futures, and options products to U.S. users.
It adds to Kraken's push into regulated derivatives infrastructure as it gears up for a potential public listing. Payward confidentially submitted a draft S-1 registration statement to the SEC in November.
The exchange has also been working to expand its institutional and derivatives presence in the UK and Europe after a separate $1.5 billion acquisition of NinjaTrader in March 2025.
Kraken has been a top-three U.S. crypto exchange over the past few years, behind Crypto.com and Coinbase. It regularly sees monthly volumes of between $20 billion and $40 billion, according to The Block's crypto exchange data.
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