Kraken is one of the world's largest crypto exchanges.

Tiffany Hagler-Geard | Bloomberg via Getty Images

Kraken is preparing to reintroduce its app with agentic trading at its core, a development that could mark the next major competitive battleground for crypto exchanges, the company told CNBC exclusively.

Agentic trading is when AI agents autonomously make trading decisions, execute transactions and potentially manage portfolios, based on human inputs. Unlike traditional automated systems that follow fixed rules, agentic platforms can evaluate multiple variables, learn from new information and pursue objectives defined by the human prompting it, within set parameters.

Kraken said its platform will give users access to agents capable of continuously monitoring markets, identifying investing opportunities and executing trades in real time. The launch reflects a broader shift toward artificial intelligence-native financial products as large language models and autonomous systems reshape how investors interact with markets.

"AI is going to help everyday people respond to market conditions the way our most active traders respond. We see even in down markets that our pro traders are highly active, they engage with the platform, they continue to trade – and it's important for customers who are more everyday people to have that same capability and be as well informed as the professional traders," said Kamo Asatryan, chief data officer at Kraken.

That vision reflects a structural change similar to the rise of mobile trading or algorithmic investing. Making financial services a mobile experience and giving people trading apps may have given them access, but it didn't necessarily make everyone confident, successful investors. Kraken believes AI can bridge that gap by bringing all of its customers closer to the experience and support that pro traders have always had.

The app's onboarding experience uses AI to learn users' goals, risk tolerance, funding preferences and financial profile in a single streamlined flow. Based on that information, the AI builds a draft portfolio that users can review, adjust and approve, while providing explanations behind its recommendations.

Once invested, users receive AI-curated insights, portfolio-relevant news and proactive recommendations, such as identifying opportunities to optimize idle cash. Over time, the platform aims to use AI to tailor both conversations and the app interface.

"Talking to Kraken should be like talking to your well-informed best friend who knows a lot about finance but also knows a lot about you, knows about your goals, knows about what you care about, and can help you navigate all of these different options, all of the different assets, products, markets to really achieve your goals without you needing to yourself become an expert and professional trader," Asatryan said.

That's also part of a broader transformation, where AI is becoming part of core infrastructure rather than a feature, and where key relationships are increasingly moving from human users to the agents managing their capital. Companies that successfully integrate autonomous trading capabilities could gain an edge in engagement, trading activity and retention.

The opportunity to discuss investing opportunities with AI is going to "unlock a lot of access, a lot of engagement from everyday people," Asatryan said. "Traditionally, that's been the province of professional traders and all of the indicators and API usage and high-frequency trading activity that they do. But in this new world, there's an opportunity for everyday people to become high-frequency traders and do so using plain English by just talking to their well informed best friend."

Kraken is joining a wider industry push toward AI-powered crypto services – exchange competitors Coinbase and Gemini have recently introduced AI-assisted trading and developer tools, for example – during a prolonged bear market in crypto asset prices, which is usually a time for the industry's builders to put their heads down and focus on innovation.

Asatryan argued AI's growing role in crypto represents a "true growth opportunity," not just the latest bear market fad.

"Traditionally, exchanges have trouble in bear markets because most of their customers have trouble in bear markets," he said. "[They] engage with those exchanges because of FOMO. … They buy in at the peak, sell when prices are down and they churn. What we've seen on our platform is [traders] are able to take advantage of any price movement and they're able to continue to engage through different market cycles."

Kraken is one of the oldest crypto exchanges, founded in 2011. Asatryan said its core user base comprises institutions, trading firms, professional traders and active leverage traders. Its retail users have likely been trading crypto for many years.

He also talked about a new cohort of customers Kraken is "looking to bring online" as it "evolves beyond an exchange" and "looks to build the full stack financial services platform across payments, banking, lending" and more.

"These are areas that have not been touched by crypto historically, but with stablecoins and with tokenized assets, there's a lot more access and capability, use cases and utility beyond exchanges," Asatryan said. "AI is going to make all of that super accessible to everyone. That's coming in the future."