Kraken will suspend USDT, DAI, WBTC, WETH and WAXL operations in Canada

Kraken will suspend all transactions related to USDT, DAI, WBTC, WETH and WAXL in Canada in November and December, according to multiple customer emails shared with Cointelegraph.

In response to a request for comment from Cointelegraph, a Kraken spokesperson said, via email, “we constantly monitor the assets on our platform to ensure we meet the highest compliance standards in the crypto industry,” before confirming the suspensions.

The email further added that Kraken remains “committed to providing our Canadian customers with an exceptional trading experience.”

The suspensions may not come as a surprise to many Canadian cryptocurrency users, as they come on the heels of several other notable exchanges taking similar actions throughout 2023. In August, Coinbase stopped trading Tether, Dai and Rai, following a similar move by Crypto. .com after previously removing Tether.

The same regulatory challenges these companies faced may also have led others to withdraw from the Canadian market entirely. As reported by Cointelegraph, OKX closed its operations in Canada in June after Binance announced its intention to do so in May.

Kraken, for its part, appears to continue its operations in Canada and will simply suspend transactions related to five specific assets.

According to the email, “from November 30th” the deposit and trading functions of the aforementioned assets will cease. Then, “from December 4th”, users will no longer be able to withdraw associated assets.

Finally, “starting December 5th,” the email continues, all remaining listed assets will be converted into US dollars at the “current market rate” and credited to users’ accounts.

In related news, Kraken announced the appointment of a new managing director for UK operations on October 27th. The new director, Bivu Das, is an entrepreneur and former director of Starling Bank with a long history in fintech and traditional financial services.