Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken today said it has acquired Stack LLC, a provider of noncustodial staking services.

The price of the acquisition was not disclosed but Kraken described it as one of the largest crypto industry acquisitions to date.

Founded in 2018, Staked helps investors earn yield from staking without relinquishing custody of their crypto assets. Pitched as operating the most secure, performant and cost-effective block production nodes for decentralized point of sale protocols, the service is designed for institutional investors.

Staked uses multitier signing and listening node architecture to deliver stakeholders security, scalability and decentralization, according to the company. The service, used by leading projects, investment funds, exchanges, custodians and wallet provides offers a highly available infrastructure with Kubernetes used to distribute across five clouds with automated failover.

The company claims to have the broadest asset coverage with support for more than 30 assets and 15 more coming soon. Stacked said its technology optimizes rewards based on the unique dynamics of each chain or product supporter, with application programming interface access available for all staking, Defi lending and reporting functionality to make integration easy.

Stack’s client list includes Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital Partners LLC, Coinbase Ventures, Winklevoss Capital Management LLC, CosenSys Software Inc., Digital Currency Group Inc., Celsius Lending LLC, Signia Venture Partners and other leading companies in the cryptocurrency business.

For Kraken, the acquisition is said to solidify its position as a leading provider of staking services to consumers and institutions by expanding the number of supported networks and enabling a noncustodial alternative to Kraken’s existing custodial staking service.

“Staked is highly complementary to our existing staking business and will allow us to further strengthen our product offering through world-class infrastructure for clients who prefer to retain custody of their staked assets,” Jesse Powell, c0-founder and chief executive officer of Kraken, said in a statement.

Staked is Kraken’s fifth acquisition in 2021. Kraken has seen spot, margin and trading volumes grow by more than 430% this year, with its existing staking business growing by more than 950%, to nearly $16 billion in November.

Prior to its acquisition, Staked had raised $4.5 million in venture capital funding, according to Crunchbase. Investors include GlobalBrain, Fabric Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, 9Yards Capital, Pantera Capital, Visary Capital and Blocktree Capital.

Image: Kraken