Kraken expands U.S. retail crypto trading with onshore spot margin product

Traders Union
All News
Financial News
Kraken expands U.S. crypto margin

Highlights

Kraken launched a regulated onshore spot margin trading product for U.S. retail crypto traders, expanding access beyond institutional and high-net-worth clients.
Kraken's recent acquisitions of Bitnomial and NinjaTrader, the latter valued at about $1.5 billion in May 2025, accelerate its push into federally regulated U.S. crypto derivatives markets.
In September 2025, the SEC and CFTC jointly signaled increased regulatory support for crypto derivatives, prompting U.S. exchanges such as CME Group to expand regulated product offerings.

Launch adds regulated leverage access

As first reported by Cointelegraph, the new product is aimed at U.S. retail traders who have historically had limited access to regulated margin trading, a market that has largely been reserved for institutions and high-net-worth investors classified as Eligible Contract Participants.

Kraken says the platform shows liquidation prices and borrowing costs before a trade is executed. Borrowing costs are charged every four hours at rates displayed before a position is opened, although the company says geographic restrictions apply and does not specify which U.S. jurisdictions are excluded.

The rollout comes days after Kraken parent Payward completed its acquisition of crypto derivatives venue Bitnomial. The company says that deal supports a broader push into federally regulated U.S. trading products, including spot margin, perpetuals and options.

In May 2025, Kraken also acquired futures trading platform NinjaTrader in a deal valued at about $1.5 billion, adding to its expansion across regulated crypto and derivatives infrastructure.

Regulatory shifts support derivatives growth

Bitnomial has spent years navigating an uncertain U.S. regulatory framework for crypto derivatives, where exchanges launching new products have faced overlapping oversight from the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

In 2024, Bitnomial sought to launch XRP futures through CFTC self-certification, but the SEC challenged the move, arguing the contracts could require securities exchange registration. Bitnomial later sued the SEC before dropping the case in March 2025, and later that month launched regulated XRP futures for U.S. users, citing changing SEC policy on digital assets.

The regulatory backdrop has since become more supportive. In a joint statement published in September 2025, the SEC and CFTC said they were exploring ways to better align oversight of crypto markets, including possible frameworks for derivatives and perpetual-style products that have historically operated largely offshore.

Against that backdrop, U.S. exchanges are expanding regulated crypto derivatives offerings. CME Group said in April that it plans to launch futures tied to Sui and Avalanche, after earlier proposals linked to Chainlink, Cardano and Stellar, while also moving toward 24/7 crypto futures and options trading pending regulatory approval.

Our earlier coverage of Kraken’s CFTC-regulated crypto spot margin launch for U.S. retail users detailed how the product opened access to up to 10x leverage using crypto as collateral. We also explained that Payward’s acquisition of Bitnomial strengthened Kraken’s regulatory footing via CFTC licenses, supporting a broader roadmap that includes regulated perpetuals and options for U.S. customers.

This material may contain third-party opinions, none of the data and information on this webpage constitutes investment advice according to our Disclaimer. While we adhere to strict Editorial Integrity, this post may contain references to products from our partners.