How Kraken plans to win LATAM

LATAM is a mosaic of regulatory regimes, banking rails, and trading cultures. Winning the region requires disciplined licensing, reliable fiat integrations, and market‑maker partnerships that seed durable liquidity in thin markets. This long‑form plan explains the playbook: where to start, how to build, and what to measure.

Executive summary

• Licensing and compliance partnerships are gating factors in key markets.
• Local rails and bank relationships reduce onboarding friction.
• Liquidity seeding through institutional market makers stabilizes depth and spreads.
• Regional GTM blends education, language‑native support, and on‑the‑ground presence.
• For APAC parallels and regional strategy, see Why APAC is the next battleground for exchanges.

Market selection: priority countries

Start with countries where compliance pathways and banking relationships are most viable. Priorities include:

• Mexico and Brazil: large economies, evolving compliance regimes, strong payment networks.
• Chile and Colombia: growing professional communities and pragmatic policy environments.

Sequence markets based on licensing feasibility and bank partner availability.

Licensing and compliance partnerships

Build credibility through local partnerships:

• Work with compliance advisors and associations to align policies.
• Publish regional disclosures that explain risk engines and incident response.
• Engage with regulators proactively; provide documentation and roadmaps.

Licensing depth supports institutional onboarding and fiat integrations.

Fiat rails and payment networks

Local rails reduce friction:

• Multiple bank partners per market with contingency plans.
• Integrate domestic payment systems where permitted.
• Treasury operations tailored to settlement windows and currency exposure.

Fiat reliability is essential for trust and retention—see Why exchange valuations are rising again.

Liquidity seeding and market‑maker programs

Thin markets require disciplined liquidity bootstrapping:

• Partner with institutional market makers aligned with governance.
• Deploy persistence targets and layered quoting for core pairs.
• Tie incentives to spread tails, depth within bps, and quote lifetimes.

For orderbook mechanics and routing improvements, read How Citadel will improve Kraken’s orderbook and Kraken liquidity structure analysis.

Regional GTM and education

Trust is built locally:

• Language‑native support and tutorials.
• Security education for phishing prevention and MFA adoption—see Is Kraken safe? Security review 2025.
• Step‑by‑step onboarding content—see How to start on Kraken (beginner guide).

Product priorities for LATAM

Focus on products that meet regional needs without fragmenting the platform:

• Spot and conservative derivatives with documented risk engines.
• Fiat on/off ramps optimized for local payment behaviors.
• Analytics and dashboards for professional clients.

Publish disclosures and KPIs that demonstrate fair execution and resilience.

M&A opportunities

Targeted acquisitions can accelerate presence:

• Licensed entities and payment gateways.
• Regional support organizations with trusted brands.

Integration discipline converts acquisitions into durable capabilities—see Will Kraken acquisitions reshape the market?.

KPIs and measurement

Measure progress with:

• Fiat uptime, redundancy, and client satisfaction.
• Liquidity KPIs: spread tails, depth, persistence, and adverse selection.
• Onboarding velocity and institutional retention.

Transparency of KPIs accelerates adoption and builds credibility with regulators.

Risks and mitigations

• Regulatory shifts: maintain modular products and rapid documentation updates.
• Banking fragility: redundant rails and contingency plans.
• Market‑maker concentration: diversify providers and incentives.

What it means

Winning LATAM requires disciplined execution across licensing, fiat, liquidity, and education. Kraken’s market‑structure focus and governance transparency are advantages that, applied locally, can compound market share. Regional success builds into global valuation quality and institutional narratives.