Hogan Lovells has advised Dr Timo Schlaefer and the main shareholders of Crypto Research Limited, the holding company of Crypto Facilities Limited, a world-leading, FCA regulated crypto currency platform and index provider, on its sale to Payward Inc, which operates Kraken, the world’s largest global bitcoin exchange in euro volume and liquidity.
This is Kraken’s largest acquisition to date and one of the largest M&A deals the emerging crypto industry has seen.
The Hogan Lovells team was led by London Corporate Partner Richard Diffenthal with assistance from Charles Jemmett, as well as specialists from the Hogan Lovells financial services, tax and share incentives teams to enable the shareholders to successfully complete the transaction.
Commenting, Richard Diffenthal said: "We were delighted to work for Timo and Crypto Research on this exciting deal. Timo is a pioneer in the industry, and we know the Crypto Facilities team will be a great addition to the Kraken team."
He added, "As the crypto industry matures we are seeing regulators, such as the FCA with their recent consultation paper, take steps to further legitimise the industry and bring crypto and tokenised assets within the regulatory perimeter. From a global perspective, we see platforms and exchanges increasingly looking to being regulated as some are keen to adopt the badge of being seen as a regulated player. As this market continues to evolve, we expect to see further consolidation in this space as there are economies of scale particularly when operating in the regulated space."
Timo Schlaefer, CEO and Founder of Crypto Facilities said: "The Hogan Lovells' teams worked seamlessly with us, bringing an efficiency of process and technical market knowledge. It has been our mission to build the most sophisticated, powerful and user friendly cryptocurrency trading platform. Teaming up with Kraken allows us to innovate the next generation of products and tremendously boosts the value we are able to provide to our clients.