The crypto exchange Kraken was completely down for about an hour on October 30. The outage lasted from 05:42 to 06:42 Moscow time. The website, app, spot and futures trading, and programmatic connections all went down at the same time.
Kraken is one of the world's largest crypto exchanges. It is used for both manual trading and trading by bots. The downtime coincided with a market crash following the $6.3 billion Binance hack.
For a trader, this is the worst-case scenario. Some clients were unable to withdraw funds or close open positions.
What exactly went down?
Almost everything went down at once. Here is the list of what stopped working:
- The website and mobile app - access to the account was lost.
- Spot and futures trading - orders were not executed.
- REST and WebSocket API - the programmatic connections used by bots and algorithms to trade.
- FIX connections and cross-exchange transfers for derivatives.
Some users were unable to withdraw funds or close open positions. Others received errors and ended up in a mode where an order could only be placed but not executed at market. At 05:55 Moscow time, the exchange said it was still looking for the cause.
What happened in the market before the outage?
A few hours before the downtime, Binance confirmed the largest theft in crypto history. Estimated losses are $6.3 billion. According to TRM Labs, the attack affected 10 blockchains.
- 23:05 Moscow time. The attack began with transfers on the XRP Ledger network.
- 23:20 Moscow time. The attackers gained control of Binance's hot wallet on Ethereum. A hot wallet is a storage facility connected to the network.
- About three and a half minutes. In that time, the wallet was emptied.
- The exchange's response. Binance halted withdrawals and promised to cover the losses; about $3 billion was frozen on the blockchain.
How far did prices fall?
The market reacted with a decline across all major coins.
- BTC - down 4.1%, to $77,445.96.
- ETH - down 4.4%, to $2,229.50.
- BNB - down 6%, to $701.18.
Sean Foley, a crypto markets specialist at Macquarie University, says that a blow to trust in a major exchange can scare retail investors and put pressure on prices.
What next?
Kraken calls the incident resolved. The exchange does not link it to the hack: it was an operational failure, not a hack. Kraken has not recorded any loss of funds.
There is one more detail. On October 29 at 11:17 Moscow time, Kraken completed a scheduled update of its spot platform. The notice does not mention any connection to it.
Key point: an hour without trading against the backdrop of a historic theft will intensify questions about how platforms handle load on stressful days. If you trade crypto on a margin account, find a challenge suited to your market in advance.
Couldn't close a position while the exchange was down?
An hour without access to the terminal - and the position trades on its own. In prop programs, this is a separate clause in the fine print: in some places, a technical platform failure is reviewed manually and a disputed trade is reconsidered, while in others the daily limit triggers automatically and the account is switched off while you are still writing to support. The same applies to the list of available coins and the right to hold crypto overnight. Such clauses are checked in a calm market.