Kraken nabs Bitstamp executive for key business development role

Former Bitstamp executive Miha Grčar is joining Kraken as head of business development.

Kraken, a San Francisco-based digital currency exchange, has added a proven crypto industry leader to its executive team, underscoring the firm’s continued expansion this year. 

In an official blog post, Kraken announced Tuesday that Miha Grčar has joined the firm as head of business development.

The post reads:

“For the better part of the last decade, Miha has helped Bitstamp gain recognition as a licensed financial institution in Europe, experience that will prove integral as he helps Kraken build critical banking relationships and forge new partnerships with essential stakeholders.”

Before joining Kraken, Grčar spent almost eight years at Bitstamp, where he served in various executive roles, including COO and head of business development.

Kraken is the world’s fifth-largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, according to Messari’s spot volume data. Bitstamp is not far behind in sixth position. There’s a significant drop off after that, though Uniswap appears to be making its way up the ranks as a bona fide decentralized exchange. 

Kraken describes Grčar as a “crypto exchange pioneer” for aiding Bitstamp’s meteoric rise over the years. Grčar’s first exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) was in late 2010, roughly two years after the Satoshi Nakamoto whitepaper was released. He would go on to join Bitsatmp roughly two-and-a-half years later.

Grčar refers to Kraken as the “OG of the oldest crypto exchanges,” and the “only exchange that had the guts, brain and spine to stand up for its clients” following the Mt. Gox implosion back in 2014.

Cryptocurrency exchanges are poised for significant growth in the coming years as digital assets continue to disrupt the fiat monetary system. Using Messari’s “Real 10” exchange volume data, Forbes estimates that U.S. trading activity alone experienced a compounded annual growth rate of 15.7% per year between 2015 and 2019.