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Kraken Launches a New Dark Pool for Bitcoin Trades

Kraken which claims that it is the best Bitcoin exchange for converting to and from US dollars, Euros, British pounds and Japanese yen has announced that it has launched a new dark pool for Bitcoin trades. Founded in 2011, San Francisco based Kraken is consistently rated the top Bitcoin exchange by independent news media.

However, the latest service is expected to get a lot of eyeballs the dark pool, which functions as an invisible order book separate from its public offering, is intended to provide a means for traders to move more than 50 BTC. Thus, the traders can now move roughly $12,500 at press time on the market in relative secret.

Kraken which was the first Bitcoin exchange listed on Bloomberg terminals, trusted by hundreds of thousands of traders, the Tokyo government and court-appointed trustee, and BaFin regulated Fidor Bank, with an exclusive partnership and full regulatory compliance. The latest feature will further attract some new traders who wish for invisible order book.

Nonetheless, the new dark pool for Bitcoin trades is expected to become popular as it is used throughout the global financial system, though the practice has faced rising scrutiny from regulators, and banks have been penalized in the past for unlawful activity within the dark pools they operate. Supporters of dark pools say they help stabilize markets and reduce costs.

Elaborating the new service and the feature Kraken CEO Jesse Powell said that now users have better access to the dark pool. According to him many users approached the company in the past about such a feature, noting that previously, it would manually handle large orders at customer request.

Extra 0.1% on dark pool trades

He admitted that there’s been some people for a while going to them and saying they need to work a big trade. According to him they have a few thousand Bitcoin they want to move but they don’t want to put it on the order book because they’re afraid of what that’s going to do the price and structure of the market.

However, with the darkpool from Kraken things will become easier for such users. Interestingly, the company says that it will charge an extra 0.1% on dark pool trades in addition to its standard trading fee, and is limiting access to customers with verified accounts. Now it has to be seen if users pay extra fee for a niche service or not.

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