Kraken Updates Platform & Introduces New Pairs: Turning the Corner?

Kraken Exchange used to be one of the foremost cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. However, this image has taken quite a knock recently as the platform has struggled to meet demand and user experience suffered.

There was also the fallout earlier this year as planned maintenance on the exchange took it down for hours which enraged users. When they released the updated platform users discovered that there were more errors than before.

However, Kraken seems to have ironed out most of these issues recently and updated a number of platform featured. This has earned it some praise from loyal users and seems to have stemmed the outflow of clients.

Could the Kraken Exchange finally be turning the corner?

Advanced Orders Reinstated

Image via kraken.com

During the surge of demand last year, Kraken took the step of removing all of the advanced order types. These were essentially the orders that included other parameters such as Stop losses and take profits.

This was no doubt frustrating for those users who traded the coins on a daily basis and wanted some avenue to be able to automatically close out of positions. This was even more relevant for those users who trade crypto on the margin.

They claimed that the elimination of these orders was because they were in less demand than the other order types. They said that they could not justify the strain on the resources at the exchange.

However, in a blog post today, Kraken says that they will be reintroducing the two most important advanced order types. Those are the Stop Loss and the Take Profit.

For example, a Stop loss sell order will execute the sell order at the market when a previous trade was executed at a price that was below the sell order. In the case of a Take Profit sell, the sell order will be executed when a previous trade is executed above the take profit level.

These advanced orders will no doubt be of great advantage to those traders who have made use of Kraken's margin trading. These too were suspended for 2 weeks in January.

Additional Pairs Added

During the demand surge last year, Kraken also delisted a number of pairs that they viewed as having too little liquidity. However, in the same announcement today they have said that a number of these will be reinstated. Below is the list of crypto pairs that will be added:

• XRP/CAD
• XRP/JPY
• EOS/EUR
• EOS/USD
• XLM/EUR
• XLM/USD
• GNO/EUR
• GNO/USD
• REP/USD
• ZEC/JPY

Japanese investors would be happy with the ZEC/JPY pair which was not listed previously. Unfortunately for Canadian and British users, they have still left out XBT/GBP, ETH/GBP and XRP/CAD that were listed previously. Kraken has said that they may add these pairs later.

Banking Setbacks

Of course, it is not completely plain sailing for Kraken. Today they had also brought the news that their banking relationship at Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMBC) was to be terminated. Below is the announcement from Kraken on the termination.

We regret to inform you that due to a variety of circumstances, we will be closing the following SWIFT bank accounts, as well as our domestic JPY funding accounts at SMBC in Japan. Please note that SEPA Euro funding will not be affected. Cryptocurrency funding will continue as usual.

This will no doubt be a great inconvenience for many of those traders who relied on this bank to send Kraken their wired funds. Traders will still be able to fund the account for the next 2 months but any deposit that has been received after the 20th of March will not be credited.

This is a surprising move as Japan has been seen as one of the most crypto-friendly regions in the world. There were some theories as to why this had happened such as those put forward by Twitter user "Bitfinexe'd".

Whether the SMBC could be running into trouble because of its use of Tether is uncertain. However, this also happened to Bitfinex last year when they lost their USD wiring ability at Wells Fargo.

While this may be a setback, Kraken says that they are trying to find a solution as quickly as possible. This also does not affect their Euro SEPA transfers that go through their European banking partners.

Can Kraken Rise Again?

While these changes are no doubt a step in the right direction for Kraken, there is still a great deal to be done to regain trust. Volumes on Kraken have fallen considerably over the past year as other exchanges have introduced better platforms.

Kraken will also have to deal with the major roadblocks that are presented by not having a SWIFT wiring bank. One can only hope that they are able to get a short-term solution set up before more clients migrate from the platform.

However, these are problems that all cryptocurrency exchanges have faced to a certain degree over the years. Financial institutions have not exactly embraced the cryptocurrency revolution with open arms.

Featured Image via Fotolia & Kraken