Kraken: Bespoke Investment Solutions with Bitwise

Kraken has signalled a significant shift in its institutional strategy by launching a bespoke yield solution, marking its first major move into professionally managed investment products. 

The initiative, delivered through Kraken Institutional, allows eligible clients to access the Bitwise Custom Yield Strategy. 

The Strategy is an external mandate managed by Bitwise Asset Management but executed entirely within Kraken’s existing secure framework.

While the crypto industry has matured rapidly, institutional investors have frequently found themselves holding assets like Bitcoin with no reliable way to generate a return. This new partnership aims to solve that fragmentation by combining Bitwise's investment expertise with Kraken’s regulated infrastructure.

Professional management meets crypto custody

The day-to-day portfolio management of the strategy is led by Gordon Grant, Bitwise’s Head of Derivatives. However, the operational heavy lifting remains with Kraken, which provides the underlying infrastructure, governance and ongoing oversight.

By integrating these services, Kraken is attempting to streamline the workflow for hedge funds, family offices and banks that require institutional–grade oversight alongside active management.

Gurpreet Oberoi, Head of Kraken Institutional, says: “Kraken is expanding beyond custody and execution to provide clients with access to professionally managed opportunities through a single, trusted venue. 

“This offering represents the first of multiple strategies as we build the infrastructure institutions need to access diverse crypto opportunities with confidence.”

Solving the yield fragmentation problem

Historically, the search for yield in the digital asset space has been a disjointed process, often forcing institutions to move assets across multiple platforms and increasing counterparty risk. 

The Bitwise Custom Yield Strategy has been designed with flexibility in mind, featuring minimal lock–up periods to ensure that institutional clients can manage their liquidity requirements effectively. 

Every strategy onboarded to the Kraken Institutional platform undergoes a structured internal review and approval process to ensure it remains subject to ongoing oversight in line with Kraken’s operating standards.

A growing ecosystem for institutional finance

This launch is not a one–off product release but the first step in a broader roadmap. Kraken Institutional intends to build a marketplace of specialist external managers and select in–house offerings, all accessible through a single, institutional–grade operational framework.

Bitwise brings a substantial track record to this partnership, managing over US$15bn in client assets across more than 40 products, including ETFs, private funds and staking. 

By plugging this expertise into Kraken’s ecosystem – which supports over 600 digital assets and six national currencies including GBP – the two firms are creating a more traditional service experience for the crypto sector.

Kraken was most recently valued at US$20bn after a funding round in November 2025. 

It achieved this across two distinct funding tranches. The initial tranche raised US$800m through a list of investors that spanned names such as Jane Street, DRW Venture Capital, HSG, Tribe Capital and Oppenheimer Alternative Investment Management. 

The family office of Kraken Co-CEO Arjun Sethi also made a significant financial contribution. 

The second tranche of funding was led by Citadel Securities. The agreement for a strategic investment saw a US$200m capital invested into Kraken.