Kraken has integrated its over-the-counter desk with Intercontinental Exchange’s ICE Chat, giving institutional traders direct access to its crypto liquidity through established financial market messaging systems.
ICE Chat connects more than 120,000 market participants, including banks and brokers, and the integration enables those users to negotiate and execute crypto block trades directly with Kraken’s OTC desk within their existing workflows.
Kraken said it is the first cryptocurrency platform approved to connect to ICE Chat, embedding digital asset liquidity alongside traditional asset classes inside institutional communications infrastructure.
Kraken’s OTC desk facilitates large block trades in spot and options markets, while Intercontinental Exchange, which also owns the New York Stock Exchange, provides data, clearing and technology services to global financial markets.
The companies said they expect to expand the integration over time as part of broader efforts to incorporate digital asset trading into mainstream market systems, though no financial terms were disclosed and following the announcement the Kraken share price was unchanged at $XX.
Intercontinental Exchange has increased its digital asset exposure over the past year, partnering with Chainlink to bring foreign exchange and metals data onchain and investing $2 billion in prediction market platform Polymarket.
The exchange operator has also explored backing crypto payments firm MoonPay and expanded tokenisation initiatives, as both Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange pursue blockchain-based trading and settlement models.
At the time of reporting, Chainlink price was $8.83.