Kraken’s DeFi Earn product has passed $200 million in deposits, amid rising demand for onchain earnings that users can access through a mainstream exchange app. The program allows customers to earn returns on their dollar balances without moving funds to external wallets or navigating DeFi protocols directly.
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According to Veda, Kraken DeFi Earn runs on three Veda vaults. More than 40,000 users now use these vaults through the Kraken app to earn returns on cash and stablecoins. The product converts deposits into USDC and allocates them to onchain strategies, while within Kraken users only see a simple earning interface.
Veda’s technology allows the vaults to connect to multiple DeFi protocols and blockchains. This structure is intended to achieve higher returns than a single protocol can provide. It also helps Kraken adapt strategies over time without changing how the product looks or works for users.
In previous DeFi cycles, many products relied on rewards or airdrops to attract deposits. Kraken will instead lean on its existing user base and an integrated experience. Users can sign up for onchain yields from the same app they already use for trading and custody.
Veda (also known as Veda Labs or Veda Tech) is the DeFi vault infrastructure provider that powers Kraken’s DeFi Earn product. They provide the underlying technology that manages deposits, strategy execution, and cross-chain operations for all three Kraken DeFi Earn vaults.
It provides a multichain, multiprotocol vault infrastructure that allows Kraken to provide DeFi yields without users having to interact with blockchain wallets or manage complex DeFi protocols directly.
Kraken has rolled out and refined DeFi Earn across the US, Canada and Europe, offering onchain earnings through integrated vaults while keeping the user experience within the familiar Kraken app, and combining that with new security education around scams and safe usage.
Enable composite DeFi strategies
The technology allows Kraken’s vaults to operate on the Ink blockchain (Kraken’s Ethereum L2) while simultaneously generating revenue from protocols on both Ink and Ethereum. Veda’s vaults are programmable and flexible, meaning they can support any blockchain, deposit asset or DeFi protocol.
This allows vault curators (Chaos Labs and Sentora) to distribute deposits with precision across multiple trusted protocols to generate passive income for Kraken users. According to Sun Raghupathi, co-founder of Veda, the partnership allows Kraken to deliver “a seamless experience” while leveraging onchain markets that offer higher variable APYs compared to traditional earning options.
Most recently, Kraken was in the news for its IPO push, gaining direct access to Federal Reserve payments as a crypto bank, and continuing to market and expand the DeFi Earn product that your Veda story connects to. The IPO filing and Fed master account have sparked new scrutiny into how deeply a crypto-native institution should be integrated into the core of the U.S. financial system, but they also strengthen Kraken’s position as a regulated, bank-like venue rather than a pure-play exchange.