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Job description

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Culture: Small, high‑impact team (~26 employees) focused on building regulated crypto infrastructure in Chicago’s historic derivatives hub.
Work policy: Hybrid – flexible combination of remote and on‑site work (typical time on‑site flexible).
Tech stack: Haskell (for trading systems), React, TypeScript, AWS, PostgreSQL, GitHub, Ansible, Terraform.
Perks: Opportunity to shape the next generation of US crypto regulation; backed by top‑tier VCs and now part of the Kraken ecosystem.
Mission‑driven: Work at the intersection of traditional finance (CFTC, risk management) and digital assets.

One-liner: Bitnomial is a US CFTC-regulated digital asset derivatives exchange offering perpetual futures, futures & options, leveraged spot, and prediction markets on a unified platform.
Entity Type: Private (acquired by Payward, the parent company of Kraken, in 2025)
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Founded: 2014
Founders: Luke Hoersten (CEO)

Primary industry: Capital Markets / Crypto Derivatives
Target customers: B2B and B2C – institutional traders, retail investors, and FCMs globally (US and international)
Mission: "To build the most trusted and innovative digital asset exchange in the United States."

[Perpetual Futures]: First CFTC-regulated perpetual futures, crypto-margined and crypto-settled, with up to 6x leverage.
[Futures & Options]: Physically delivered Bitcoin futures and options, also settled in the underlying digital asset.
[Leveraged Spot]: CFTC-regulated leveraged retail spot market.
[Prediction Markets]: Event‑based contracts on the same platform.
[Botanical Platform]: Unified trading interface for all products (perpetuals, futures, options, spot, predictions).
[Hashrate Futures]: Innovative futures contracts tied to Bitcoin mining hashrate.

Valuation / Market Cap: Not disclosed (acquired by Payward/Kraken in December 2025)
Key Metric: Total funding $45.5M (last round: $25M venture round led by Ripple in July 2024)
Notable Investors/Partners: Electric Capital, Jump Capital, Franklin Templeton, RRE Ventures, Ripple
Growth Signals:
- Acquired by Payward (Kraken’s parent) in late 2025, signaling major expansion.
- Added prediction markets and leveraged spot products in 2025.
- Headcount 21 (+4.2% YoY) with offices in Chicago, Mexico, UK.
- Monthly website traffic ~6,700 visits, growing +94.9% yearly.

Regulatory moat: Only CFTC-regulated exchange that is simultaneously a Designated Contract Market (DCM), Derivative Clearing Organization (DCO), and Futures Commission Merchant (FCM).
Crypto-native settlement: All derivatives settle in the actual digital asset (not cash) – offers real ownership and tax advantages (blended 60% long‑term / 40% short‑term capital gains treatment).
Unified clearing: Single collateral pool across perpetuals, futures, options, and spot.
First‑mover: First CFTC-regulated perpetual futures and leveraged retail spot market in the US.

Product expansion: Continuing to add new contract types (prediction markets, hashrate futures) and leverage existing regulatory licenses.
Post‑acquisition integration: Leveraging Payward/Kraken’s global liquidity and user base to scale Bitnomial’s regulated products.
Institutional adoption: Attracting traditional financial institutions through CFTC trust and crypto margin capabilities (new OCC guidance supports bank‑affiliated brokerages).

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