Crypto exchange Kraken is in talks to acquire a 15% stake in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Aave (CRYPTO: $AAVE) at a $385 million U.S. valuation.
A deal would see privately held Kraken invest 35,000 Ethereum (CRYPTO: $ETH) in return for 250,000 AAVE tokens and a 15% equity stake in the DeFi lender.
In all, the deal is worth $71 million U.S. and would mark the first in a series of deals aimed at expanding Kraken ahead of an upcoming initial public offering (IPO).
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Aave is the largest decentralized lender and enables users to lend and borrow cryptocurrency assets without the use of intermediaries.
Depositors earn yield by supplying tokens to liquidity pools, while borrowers post crypto collateral to take out loans, with smart contracts automatically managing the entire process.
Aave faced a crisis earlier this year when North Korean hacker Lazarus Group took the equivalent of $292 million U.S. in Ethereum from its platform.
Aave's smart contracts weren't compromised in the hack. Still, the exploit triggered $8 billion U.S. in withdrawals as users rushed to reduce their exposure to Aave.
Kraken has increased its acquisitions recently as it prepares for an IPO. In April, the exchange agreed to acquire crypto derivatives platform Bitnomial for $550 million U.S.
Kraken has said that it is in the process of building a multi-asset platform ahead of its IPO that could occur as soon as this year's second half.