Kraken is now offering users the chance to trade the Nasdaq 100 through its funded-account program, marking the first time Kraken has added a market outside of crypto. This isn’t a classic stock brokerage setup. Instead, it extends Kraken’s existing proprietary trading structure to equity index trading. Traders buy an evaluation, run their strategy in a simulated environment, and, if they hit profit targets while avoiding specific losses, they can qualify for up to $200,000 in trading capital from Kraken itself. If a user passes, they keep up to 90% of profits. There’s a 3% daily loss limit and a maximum drawdown of 6% for the Nasdaq 100 track.
Kraken says the product runs around the clock, without contract expirations or rollovers, and with no time limit on the evaluation. This type of challenge model, common among proprietary trading firms, is now live under Kraken Prop, the firm’s evaluated funded-account structure. More than 35,000 wallets have been funded since 2023, but this is the first time those accounts can target a major equity index instead of just digital assets. With earlier moves into tokenized equities and traditional finance futures, Kraken’s direction is clear: it wants to be more than a crypto exchange. The main question is whether this new track brings in index-focused traders, or just gives existing crypto-native users more ways to trade inside the same platform.