Benzinga | Aug 24, 2021 12:45PM EDT

Coinbase Rival Kraken Plans Europe Expansion, IPO By End Of The Year

U.S.-based crypto exchange Kraken is planning to expand in Europe by the end of the year.

What Happened: "We are working on a license in an EU country," said Founder and CEO Jesse Powell in an interview with German publication Handelsblatt.

The Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN) rival is reportedly in talks with supervisory authorities in Malta, Luxembourg, and Ireland, but hasn't made any decisions just yet.

Why It Matters: With a daily trading volume of $1.3 billion and more than six million customers across 190 countries, the crypto exchange ranks fifth in the world in terms of size.

However, its rival Coinbase ranks second with over $3.5 billion in daily trading volume and has already moved towards a Europe expansion.

After securing its German license, Coinbase can begin targeting customers in other EU countries.

Read also: Coinbase Apologizes, Promises USDC To Return To Conservative Investment Backing

Still, Powell believes that in some aspects, it is a good thing that Coinbase went first.

"For us, it is good that Coinbase was the first to go public," he said, explaining that Kraken is unlikely to take the direct listing approach that Coinbase did.

What Else: The company is currently valued at $10 billion and plans to go public via an IPO later this year.

Powell believes that a unique selling point during the time of its public offering would be the crypto exchange's banking license granted by the U.S. state of Wyoming.

"Users will also be able to link their bank account to their crypto account. So you have everything in view," he said.

Price Action: At press time, Coinbase shares were trading at a price of $256, gaining 0.057% since the start of the session.

Meanwhile, in crypto markets, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) dropped 2.90% over the past 24-hours to a price of $48,136.