U.S.-based crypto exchange Kraken has acquired Australia’s oldest crypto exchange.

In a recent development, Kraken announced its acquisition of Bit Trade, an Australia-based crypto exchange formed in 2013, in a Jan. 14 press release on Kraken’s blog.

The Bit Trades website will, for the time being, still operate as it does presently, a representative from Kraken clarified to Cointelegraph, including maintaining the existing staff. A representative said:

“In the short term, Bit Trade will continue under its current brand and operate business as usual. As part of the acquisition we are pleased to welcome the Bit Trade team led by Jonathon Miller who will be Managing Director for Kraken in Australia.”

Looking toward the outback

By bringing Bit Trade into the fold, Kraken will look to become the go-to crypto trading solution in Australia — a region that has shown significant interest and expansion in the crypto space, the press release noted.

Kraken plans to host trading liquidity for Australia’s dollar (AUD) and cater to retail and institutional players, the release added. Additionally, the acquisition adds to Kraken’s over-the-counter (OTC) trading capabilities.

Meshing the two operations

The acquisition will result in one interface which harnesses multiple exchanges, giving customers an improved overall product, Kraken explained in its release.

Australian users can now also access Kraken’s sizable OTC market as a result of the Bit Trade purchase.

Kraken announced its purchase of one of the most prominent OTC trading operations in the crypto space — Circle’s OTC desk — in December 2019 as Circle shifted focus to its stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC), according to a Cointelegraph report.