Following its expansion to North America through the acquisition of Coinsetter and Cavirtex, leading bitcoin exchange Kraken is once again in news for its acquisition of a Netherlands-based bitcoin exchange CleverCoin. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Kraken said that the addition of CleverCoin will solidify its footing in Europe with the arrival of thousands of new clients. As the majority of CleverCoin’s clients are in European countries, the acquisition is expected to have the greatest impact on Kraken’s euro trading pairs. Since the third week of April, average weekly volume in these pairs has been growing at a rapid rate – over 4x increase in the bitcoin-euro (XBT/EUR) and ether-euro (ETH/EUR) pairs. The ether-bitcoin pair (ETH/XBT) has seen a massive 9x increase.

In the announcement, CEO Jesse Powell described plans to fold the CleverCoin brand into Kraken’s global umbrella, while providing existing clients with seamless access to Kraken’s unique features.

“The acquisition of CleverCoin will empower Kraken with greater liquidity and a significantly expanded customer base in Europe, our flagship market”, Powell said.

Founded in 2013, CleverCoin is one of the first bitcoin exchanges in the Netherlands. It was one of the earliest exchanges in Western Europe to focus on compliance, offer leveraged trading, and establish regulated banking partnerships. After successfully selling the most prominent Dutch bitcoin exchange, CleverCoin’s founders have decided to focus on providing IT business solutions.  

“Kraken is the ideal custodian for CleverCoin going forwards. They are, by every measure, the largest bitcoin and digital asset exchange in Europe and our core beliefs are perfectly aligned”, CTO and Co-Founder Karsten Nilsen said. “As of today, CleverCoin clients will have seamless access to all the features and benefits of Kraken’s global brand, including the ability to trade many of the most popular currency pairs, the latest technology, the most advanced security, and faster Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) transfers.”

CleverCoin clients will be automatically transferred to Kraken’s platform on June 29, 2016. Once the transfer is completed, account holders will be directed to Kraken’s official website to login, update account information, and can begin trading immediately.

In April, Kraken announced that it has received a significant investment from leading Japanese FX brokerage Money Partners Group to their Series B, the round which it said is led by Japanese venture fund SBI Investment. More recently, the company started offering Ether (ETH) Dark Pool trading to its clients, allowing them to place large ether orders discreetly.