Cryptocurrency Exchange Kraken Marks 10th Anniversary with $300,000 Education Grant to University of Wyoming

The grant is Kraken's largest to date.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kraken is excited to announce it has officially partnered with the University of Wyoming to launch a multi-year education effort designed to prepare the next generation for a digital asset-powered economy.

To benefit students and educators of all ages in the state, the program marks Kraken’s largest ever commitment to furthering the study of Bitcoin and digital asset technologies and represents a deepening of our presence in Wyoming following the 2020 launch of Kraken Bank, a regulated Wyoming-based financial services firm.

Toward these goals, Kraken will offer scholarship support to PhD students at the University of Wyoming, collaborate with university educators to offer free learning opportunities for K-12 students and develop paid professional development opportunities for K-12 teachers.

Jesse Powell, CEO at Kraken, said: “On our 10th anniversary, we’re setting sights on the future by investing in expanding access to quality education on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. We hope the program will capture imaginations and contribute to a better financial future for Wyoming and for the world.”

In total, Kraken has committed to give up to $300,000 over three years to support the effort, a gift that will enable the University of Wyoming to offer students opportunities in one of the world’s fastest-growing and most exciting industries.

Further, the support for a computing-based summer camp expands the University of Wyoming’s efforts by bringing real-world computing knowledge and applications to students and educators.

"This gift from Kraken enables us to recruit and retain a high-caliber researcher who will work in an interdisciplinary space with other researchers from both the Wyoming Advanced Blockchain Laboratory as well as the Cybersecurity Education And Research Center,” said Assistant Professor of Computer Science Dr. Mike Borowczak.

The partnership is also part of an ongoing expansion of the size and scope of Kraken’s grant program to include digital asset industry initiatives beyond open-source development.

Over the course of 2021, Kraken aims to give more than $1 million to support the developers of open-source cryptocurrency technologies and to supporting outreach initiatives.

Looking ahead, Kraken remains committed to giving back to states and countries that adopt policies designed to safeguard consumers and further the development of digital assets.

About Kraken

Based in San Francisco, Kraken is the world’s largest global digital asset exchange based on euro volume and liquidity. Globally, Kraken’s client base trades more than 70 digital assets and 7 different fiat currencies, including EUR, USD, CAD, GBP, JPY, CHF and AUD. Kraken was founded in 2011 and was the first U.S. crypto firm to receive a state-chartered banking license, as well as one of the first exchanges to offer spot trading with margin, regulated derivatives and index services. Kraken is trusted by more than 7 million traders, institutions and authorities around the world and offers professional, round the clock online support.

2021 is already a record year for Kraken. Year-to-date, Kraken has processed more than $420 billion in trading volume, more than three times the volume reported in 2020, our best year on record. May is Kraken’s best month on record. In a single day, Kraken processed just under $12 billion traded volume, which exceeded most historical monthly volumes, and was more than 40x the average daily volumes in 2020.

Furthermore, Kraken continues to see an influx in new customers. Total signups in the first two months of the year were triple the number of signups we had for the whole of H2 2020.

Kraken is backed by investors including Tribe Capital, Hummingbird Ventures, Blockchain Capital and Digital Currency Group, among others. For more information about Kraken, please visit www.kraken.com.

About University of Wyoming

Rooted in the traditions of the West and surrounded by the rugged Rocky Mountains, the University of Wyoming was founded in 1886 and is a nationally recognized land-grant research institution with expert faculty, top-ranked academics and world-class facilities.

UW is a major teaching and research university with approximately 13,500 students and more than 700 faculty members. Throughout its existence, UW has been the only four-year university in the state of Wyoming, though it has maintained a close relationship with the state’s community colleges.

Programs such as athletics, agricultural extension, state and federal partnerships—and more recent initiatives such as the School of Energy Resources and the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center—have played important roles in the lives of many Wyoming residents and communities for almost 125 years.