Kraken Targeting Professional Crypto Traders
Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Kraken, on building the Nasdaq of crypto
Kraken is trying to own the highest value slice of crypto trading, the users who trade often enough to care about latency, liquidity, fees, and workflow, but are still choosing their venue every day. That is what the Interactive Brokers comparison signals. It points to a business built less around mass retail signups and more around serving active traders with Kraken Pro, API access, OTC desks, and account coverage, which lifts revenue per customer far above broader consumer platforms.
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Professional traders sit between casual retail and large institutions. In practice that means solo full time traders, family offices, and small teams using their own capital. They want advanced order types, lower fees, fast execution, and direct market access, not a simple buy button.
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The economics show why Kraken leans in here. Kraken generated about $2,023 of ARPU in 2024 versus about $825 for Coinbase and $164 for Robinhood, which reflects a customer base that trades more frequently and uses higher value products.
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This also explains Kraken’s product structure. Instead of one monolithic app, it uses the exchange as common infrastructure and layers different experiences on top, including a pro trader app, a consumer app, send and receive tools, and institutional services.
Going forward, this focus pushes Kraken toward becoming a crypto native broker and exchange stack for serious traders first, then expanding outward into payments, stablecoins, and other financial services built on the same liquidity engine. If that works, Kraken can deepen wallet share without needing to win the entire retail market.