There’s no denying that the crypto market has been gripped by immense bearish pressure over the past year, as made evident by the fact that the total capitalization of this sector has continued to hover below the $900 billion mark for most of the year after having scaled up to an all-time high of $3 trillion in 2021. These conditions have been characterized by many companies facing insolvency, as well as many of the world’s top exchanges laying off their staff in recent months. Moreover, the recent FTX debacle has set in motion a contagion effect that has continued to …

Bitcoin advocate Nic Carter has released an in-depth analysis of centralized exchange proof-of-reserves and ranked the attestations provided by some of the most prominent crypto trading platforms in the space. Carter published a detailed examination of the quality of several exchanges’ proof-of-reserves (PoR). The crypto executive used parameters such as attestation to assets held and a disclosure of liabilities, incorporating a third-party auditor, demonstrating credibility by taking a PoR for all assets and committing to an ongoing procedure to determine which PoRs are of the best quality. Crypto trading platforms Kraken and BitMEX topped the list. According to Carter, Kraken, …

Global cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has decided to pull its operations in Japan for the second time, citing a strain on its resources amid a “weak crypto market.” In a Dec. 28 blog post, Kraken said it has decided to cease its operations in Japan and deregister from the Financial Services Agency by Jan. 31, 2023, which it said was part of efforts to “prioritize resources” and investments, stating: “Current market conditions in Japan in combination with a weak crypto market globally mean the resources needed to further grow our business in Japan aren’t justified at this time.” “As a result, …

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization gained 2% in the past seven days, reaching $850 billion. Even with the positive movement and the ascending channel that was initiated on Nov. 20, the overall sentiment remains bearish and year-to-date losses amount to 63.5%. Bitcoin (BTC) price also gained a mere 2% on the week, but investors have little to celebrate as the current $16,800 level represents a 64% drop year-to-date. Bankrupt exchange FTX remained at the centerpiece of the newsflow after the exchange hacker continued to move portions of the stolen $477 million in stolen assets as an attempt to launder the …

Ether (ETH) rallied 5.5% in the early hours of Nov. 29, reclaiming the critical $1,200 support. However, when analyzing a broader time frame, the 24% negative performance in the past 30 days significantly impacts investors' sentiment. Moreover, investors’ mood worsened after BlockFi filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 28. Newsflow remained negative after the United States Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced a settlement with Kraken exchange for "apparent violations of sanctions against Iran." In a Nov. 28 announcement, the OFAC said Kraken had agreed to pay more than $362,000 as part of a deal "to settle its …

The United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, has announced a settlement with crypto exchange Kraken for “apparent violations of sanctions against Iran.” In a Nov. 28 announcement, OFAC said Kraken had agreed to pay more than $362,000 as part of a deal “to settle its potential civil liability” related to violating the United States’ sanctions against Iran. The U.S.-based crypto exchange will also be investing $100,000 into sanctions compliance controls as part of the agreement with Treasury. “Due to Kraken’s failure to timely implement appropriate geolocation tools, including an automated internet protocol (IP) address blocking …

The collapse of the crypto exchange FTX revealed the importance of proof-of-reserves in avoiding situations involving the misappropriation of users’ funds. While exchanges have proactively started sharing wallet addresses to prove the existence of users’ funds, several entrepreneurs, including Kraken CEO and co-founder Jesse Powell, called the practice “pointless” as exchanges fail to include liabilities. According to Powell, a complete proof-of-reserve audit must include the sum of client liabilities, user-verifiable cryptographic proof that each account was included in the sum and signatures proving the custodian’s control over the wallets. While Kraken’s proof-of-reserve does allow verification of assets against the company’s …

Bitcoin (BTC) has flooded out of exchanges in the past week as users become wary of security and regulatory scrutiny. Data from on-chain monitoring resource Coinglass shows United States exchanges in particular seeing heavy BTC balance reductions. U.S. exchanges lead BTC exodus In the wake of the FTX scandal, efforts to draw attention to the risk involved in custodial BTC storage stepped up on social media. Users appeared to heed the warning, withdrawing over $3 billion in cryptocurrency in the week immediately following the solvency debacle and ordering record numbers of hardware wallets. The aftermath of FTX is only just …

United-States-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has frozen the accounts associated with “FTX Group, Alameda Research, and their executives,” on its exchange after engaging with authorities. In a Twitter post on Nov. 13, Kraken said the accounts were frozen “to protect their creditors” and added it “maintains full reserves” and other users' funds aren’t affected, likely seeking to stamp out fears from users that the exchange might face liquidity issues due to the fund freeze. Kraken has spoken with law enforcement regarding a handful of accounts owned by the bankrupt FTX Group, Alameda Research and their executives. Those accounts have been frozen …

In what it hails as an effort to be transparent, Digital Currency Group’s market maker and lending subsidiary, Genesis Trading, revealed that its derivatives business has around $175 million worth of funds locked away in an FTX trading account. Genesis shared the news in a Nov. 10 tweet thread, in which the firm clarified that the locked funds would “not impact our market-making activities.” As part of our goal in providing transparency around this week’s market events, the Genesis derivatives business currently has ~$175M in locked funds in our FTX trading account. This does not impact our market-making activities. — …

Both Coinbase and Kraken's platforms were down or experiencing intermittent latency issues on Nov.8, amid market turbulence, according to users' complaints on Twitter. This news followed the disclosure that crypto exchange Binance intends to acquire its rival FTX earlier in the day. According to Twitter users, services were limited in both exchanges, with issues related to connectivity to the platforms and unconfirmed rumors of halted withdrawals. BREAKING: Coinbase is DOWN! Several services are down right now. Now y’all seeing real bear market dealings — MASON VERSLUIS (@MasonVersluis) November 8, 2022 On its support profile, Coinbase said it was "experiencing network …

Kraken is the latest cryptocurrency exchange to restrict accounts of Russian users on its platform in compliance with sanctions from the European Union. On Oct. 19, Kraken sent out email statements to its Russian clients to announce that the exchange is halting services to its Russian customers. “Due to the new European legislation, we have to take measures to restrict your Kraken account,” the company said. According to an email statement seen by Cointelegraph, Russian users would be able to withdraw their funds by request. “We will update our support center if there are any changes,” Kraken noted, adding: “We …