Kraken launches AI investing assistant to challenge traditional advisors

Kraken has launched an AI-powered investing assistant that delivers personalized portfolio recommendations and market insights while keeping final trading decisions in users’ hands.

According to Kraken, the new mobile experience replaces a trading-first interface with a goal-based approach that asks users about their financial objectives before suggesting investments.

Instead of requiring customers to navigate charts and order books, the platform customizes recommendations around targets such as buying a home, building an emergency fund, or saving for retirement.

The exchange said its “financial intelligence” system continuously tracks market conditions, identifies potential investment opportunities, and recommends trades, but does not execute transactions on its own. Every suggested trade requires user approval before it is placed, with Kraken describing the feature as a decision-support tool rather than an autonomous trading system.

According to CNBC, the assistant also considers a user’s risk tolerance, funding preferences, and financial profile to generate a suggested portfolio. Users can modify those recommendations before investing, while the app continues providing portfolio updates and tailored investment ideas based on their existing holdings.

Commenting on the launch in an interview with CNBC, Kraken chief data officer Kamo Asatryan said the technology is intended to give everyday investors access to market awareness comparable to the exchange’s most active traders by continuously monitoring markets and surfacing trading opportunities.

“[T]here’s an opportunity for everyday people to become high-frequency traders and do so using plain English.”

AI tools are becoming a new battleground for crypto exchanges

Kraken’s latest rollout comes as cryptocurrency exchanges increasingly compete by embedding AI assistants into trading platforms instead of limiting users to traditional exchange interfaces.

Earlier in June, OKX introduced a beta marketplace that allows AI agents to complete onchain tasks, build blockchain-based reputations, and transact autonomously. During the same month, Coinbase launched a tool that enables AI agents to make payments and trade cryptocurrencies on behalf of users through its x402 payments protocol.

Supporting that trend, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis reported last month that agentic payment activity on Coinbase’s Base network had exceeded 100 million transactions. According to the report, although transaction growth has moderated, the average value of transfers has increased, suggesting AI-driven payments are expanding beyond low-value experiments into more meaningful financial activity.

Human approval remains central to AI-assisted investing

While exchanges are adding more AI capabilities, they continue to keep users in control of trade execution.

On Friday, fintech company Revolut expanded its Revolut X exchange by allowing customers to connect external AI assistants including Claude, Gemini, Cursor, and OpenClaw. According to the company, those assistants can analyze markets, backtest trading strategies, and submit trading instructions using natural-language prompts.

Like Kraken’s platform, Revolut requires users to review and approve every order before execution rather than allowing AI systems to trade independently. Across these products, companies are positioning AI as a research and portfolio management assistant instead of giving automated agents unrestricted authority over customer funds.