Kraken, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in operation, scheduled a system upgrade last week for December 11th. The upgrade was to replace its trading engine with a new and improved version. Originally expected to take just 2 hours, Kraken remained down for several days finally reanimating on January 13th relieving users. Kraken is also used by the CME Group to help price BTC Futures. A status update on the site stated;
“We are still working to resolve the issues that we have identified and our team is working around the clock to ensure a smooth upgrade. This means it may still take several hours before we can relaunch the site.”
On January 13th, Kraken was back up and running with management announcing Free Trading. Apparently referencing the extended down-time, Kraken said that “all client funds were kept safe and secure during this time.”
Kraken did apologize for the “uncertainty” caused by the extended hiatus and shard more work was necessary and cautioned the digital assets exchange could go down without any notice. Users may monitor status.kraken.com for real-time updates and announcements over the next few days.
In recognition of the inconvenience caused by the upgrade, Kraken is enabling zero fee trading for all clients(across non-margin trades)lasting through the end of this month.
Founded in 2011, Kraken is one of the oldest digital asset exchanges in operation today. Kraken works with a large number of traders and institutions including Germany’s Fidor Bank. It also provides data to Bloomberg terminals. Kraken investors include Blockchain Capital, Digital Currency Group, Hummingbird Ventures, Money Partners Group, and SBI Investment
