The move is part of ICE’s broader strategy to bring crypto trading into traditional financial markets.
Kraken has joined ICE Chat to scale up AI-assisted messaging for institutional crypto trading, with the platform’s global user base hitting 5.7 million.
Through ICE Chat, institutional clients can now directly interact with Kraken’s trading desk using advanced messaging tools, reflecting the growing adoption of AI-assisted systems in digital asset markets.
The integration also connects Kraken’s OTC desk to ICE Chat, the Intercontinental Exchange’s platform used by over 120,000 traders worldwide, including banks, brokers, asset managers, and trading desks, to exchange insights and execute trades efficiently.
Thanks to the integration, these institutions can tap into Kraken via a system seamlessly integrated with their daily trading operations. Institutional traders can negotiate crypto trades, request pricing, and execute large trades directly with Kraken’s OTC desk via ICE Chat.
Kraken says it is the first cryptocurrency exchange approved to integrate with ICE Chat. This makes crypto trading part of an existing institutional communication network, allowing large financial players to participate more easily in digital asset markets. The companies said they would expand the integration further over time. The move is part of a wider strategy to embed crypto trading into traditional financial infrastructure, enabling institutions to access digital assets using established tools and workflows.
ICE is a major global market infrastructure provider offering exchange, clearing, data, and technology solutions across financial markets. The announcement also comes after Kraken made a recent pledge to support US President Donald Trump’s proposed “Trump Accounts,” a savings program for Americans under 18.
Over the past year, Intercontinental Exchange has increased its activity in the crypto and blockchain sectors. The company is looking beyond its core exchange business into blockchain data services, prediction markets, and crypto payments.
ICE teamed up with Chainlink, a blockchain oracle provider, in August. The idea was to bring foreign exchange and precious metals data onchain. With Chainlink-related solutions, the first of its kind in a global network, the collaboration brings ICE’s Consolidated Feed — which pulls pricing data from over 300 global exchanges and marketplaces — into the fold as well. That allows blockchain applications to access verified market data from traditional financial markets.
In October, ICE invested $2 billion in Polymarket, a crypto-based prediction market platform. The deal is said to have valued Polymarket at $9 billion after the investment. This was followed in December by ICE entering discussions to support MoonPay, a crypto payments company seeking a reported $5 billion valuation in its latest funding round.
ICE’s investment in MoonPay was not disclosed. What has been revealed is that ICE not only provides the physical infrastructure for digital assets but also takes financial stakes in companies operating in this world of cryptocurrency. Kraken integration is part of ICE positioning itself as a bridge between traditional finance and blockchain-based markets.
Other leading US exchanges are also exploring tokenization. Nasdaq submitted a request to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in September. The filing asked for approval to list tokenized stocks under a proposed rule change.
In January, the New York Stock Exchange unveiled plans to develop a 24/7 trading platform for tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The plan would bring together elements of the exchange’s Pillar matching engine with blockchain-based systems for post-trade settlement.
The project is subject to regulatory approval. All of which together indicates that big financial institutions are taking digital assets more seriously. Kraken is leveraging a large, established institutional trading community by bringing its OTC desk to ICE Chat.
Meanwhile, ICE and other exchanges are deepening their presence in the blockchain marketplace. Integration between traditional and digital finance may become more common as the two converge.
