Kraken upgrades with much needed new features

As Kraken became evidently unable to handle the large number of users trading on its platform, they successfully upgraded the platform to keep up with the increased number of traders using the exchange. This followed a downtime of around 48 hours that negatively affected thousands of traders on Kraken's platform.
A prominent US-based cryptocurrency exchange has finally carried out important upgrades. Kraken became a joke in the crypto exchange market, as it was unable to handle the size of its user base. The exchange was known to crash frequently, especially during times of heavy trading.

The downtime was initially planned to last just a few hours. However, Kraken stayed offline for about 48 hours. In December, the exchange explained that it is trying to come up with a solution to problem scaling the website, but provided no deadline of when the issue would be fixed. It simply asked its users to try again whenever a problem arises.

It is understandable that the users of Kraken have gotten quite frustrated with the performance of the exchange. Kraken released a short, apologetic blogpost in which it clarified that it is receiving 50,000 user registrations every day, with 10,000 new support tickets issued daily. The demand is directly associated with the increasing demand for altcoins.

The exchange clarified that it was unable to cope with the high number of users. The exchange’s website became extremely unreliable, and the service had significantly degraded.

The shutdown during the update period worried its clients, however, the upgrade was a success. Funds of the users remained safe during the update. The exchange commented that there is still a long way to go.

Kraken commented following regarding the matter:
“We still have some more work to do before the new trading engine is as good as we want it to be, but this week’s replacement was an important first step to having a better trading experience. Our system was replicated in development, where all tests passed.”

All of the trading positions have been cancelled, except for margin positions, and users have been asked to open new positions. The margin positions have remained open, but their liquidation has been paused for at least 48 hours.

Kraken is monitoring the new, updated system for anomalies or any unexpected failures. The exchange has advised its users to be careful while trading on its platform. However, to support the loyal customer base, Kraken has cut trading fees until the end of January.

The upgrade was a necessity if Kraken wanted to remain competitive in the ever-growing crypto trading industry. More exchanges are to follow suite, as not many people expected that the cryptocurrency market would ever reach the current level.