Lightyear, an investment app whose backers include billionaire Richard Branson, has teamed up with Kraken, a US-based cryptocurrency trading exchange, to enable Irish investors to directly trade crypto on the platform for the first time in the coming days.
Platform users will be able to buy 12 of the world’s most-traded cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, according to Lightyear, which was founded in 2020 by Martin Sokk and Mihkel Aamer, two former employees of money-transfer app Wise.
Cryptocurrency was the most requested new asset class among three quarters of Lightyear’s users, a pan-European customer survey by the platform found. Half of those already holding crypto plan to continue doing so for more than five years, findings that Lightyear claim indicate that the volatile asset is moving from a speculative bet to becoming part of a diversified portfolio.
“The biggest cryptocurrencies have earned their place in long-term portfolios across Ireland,” said Sokk, Lightyear’s CEO.
“This isn’t because they’ve become less volatile, but because serious investors are no longer willing to ignore them. What they also told us is that the existing options are either too expensive, too opaque, or designed for short-term trading. We’ve built something different.”
The company said it’s charging a single 0.45pc fee for each order, and that there will be no spread markup. The 12 coins will be available as dollar and euro trading pairs and will be routed through Kraken.
Kraken last year became the first major crypto company to get a Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory licence from the Central Bank of Ireland, allowing it to trade across the European Economic Area as a fully regulated entity. MiCA was the EU’s first set of rules to regulate crypto assets markets.
“Many existing crypto providers are operating under a transitional period that expires on July 1, 2026; after this date, any provider without full MiCA authorisation must stop offering crypto-asset services,” Lightyear said in a statement. “Lightyear launches fully authorised from day one. Lightyear’s MiCA licence means regulated, safeguarded crypto operations for the long haul.”
In 2023, Central Bank governor Gabriel Maklouf, the governor of the Central Bank, likened unbacked crypto assets to “Ponzi schemes” and that buying these digital currencies were akin to “purchasing a lottery ticket”. Last year, Coinbase, one of the world’s biggest crypto marketplaces, and Gemini, the cryptocurrency exchange founded by the US billionaire Winklevoss twins, switched their regulatory hubs out of Ireland.