Kraken Introduces Bespoke Program for High-Net-Worth Individuals
Kraken has launched an exclusive service tailored for its "ultra-wealthy clients" as the US-based cryptocurrency exchange gears up for a potential public listing sometime in 2026. This new program, unveiled this week, is specifically curated for Kraken’s ultra-high net worth individuals, active traders, and institutional capital allocators who seek bespoke support and direct access to senior experts within the firm.
Major centralized exchanges are increasingly competing to attract private clients and family offices by offering the "premium treatment" that was once exclusively available through traditional wealth managers. In a similar move, rival exchange Binance recently established its own "prestige" tier for users with a net worth of at least $10 million.
VIP Program Features ‘High Touch Services’
According to a blog post published by Kraken on Thursday, the VIP tier provides dedicated support and "extraordinary experiences." Each member is assigned a specialist relationship manager who serves as their primary point of contact. These managers are supported by 24/7 support teams and offer multichannel access to staff across Kraken’s product groups. VIP clients also gain early visibility into new features within Kraken's product ecosystem and access to in-house specialists in areas such as liquidity, custody, engineering, and infrastructure.
In a statement announcing the program, Co-CEO Arjun Sethi highlighted that Kraken developed this tier to meet the expectations of clients with significant financial scale. To qualify for membership, clients must maintain either a $10 million average balance on the platform or achieve an annual trading volume of $80 million.
Sethi stated, "Ultra high-net-worth clients don’t come to us for speed alone; they also come to us because they expect a partner who matches their ambition and understands what true scale looks like. Kraken VIP was built for them. It has unprecedented access, influence, and an improved experience that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the digital asset ecosystem."
VIP members will be extended invitations to "extraordinary experiences," which include events such as Formula 1 races, football matches, cultural gatherings, and exclusive small meet-ups not open to the general public. The company emphasized that these engagements are designed to foster deeper relationships between clients and senior figures within the industry.
Kraken Expands Services into Tokenized Assets
The launch of the VIP program occurs against the backdrop of another significant announcement from the San Francisco-based exchange made this week. Cryptopolitan had reported on Tuesday that Kraken is acquiring Backed Finance, a tokenization platform that issues digital representations of real-world assets, including stocks and exchange-traded fund shares. Kraken has already listed several tokens created by Backed, and executives from both companies indicated that the acquisition will allow for tighter integration of these products into Kraken's system.
Sethi, who discussed the acquisition in a recent interview, expressed Kraken's intention to treat tokenized equities as a long-term offering, distinguishing it from what he described as a short-lived trend often associated with crypto assets. "While everyone is talking about tokenized equities, we are just doing it," he said. "We are focused on long-term investment, not hype."
Public Listing on the Horizon, But CEO Sethi Emphasizes Patience
Kraken has been actively preparing for an initial public offering (IPO). The exchange quietly filed for an IPO with the SEC and recently closed a funding round that valued the company at $20 billion. As one of the industry's longest-standing operators, having debuted in 2011, Kraken, formally known as Payward Ventures, has historically operated with a lean capital structure, receiving only $27 million in external primary funding from its inception through the end of last year.
However, this approach shifted earlier this year when Kraken successfully raised $500 million from investors including Apollo Global Management, Oppenheimer, and Jane Street. Financial news publication Fortune reported that this round valued the firm at $15 billion before subsequent developments led to its increased valuation.
Speaking at Yahoo Finance’s Invest event in mid-November, Sethi maintained that Kraken is not in a hurry to go public, despite competitor Coinbase already being a publicly traded company. "We have enough capital on our balance sheet today as a private company, and we don’t want to race to the door as quickly as possible," he asserted. "What’s good about these companies coming out first is that they are educating the market on what’s good and what’s bad, what margin looks like, how do you make money."