Kraken Unveils Parachain Auction Platform

Kraken clients can securely participate in Kusama’s Parachain Auctions without having to leave the exchange.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kraken, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Europe by euro trading volume, has today announced it will support Parachain Auctions in time for the first rounds taking place on Kusama, the “canary network” for Polkadot.

Kraken clients, excluding those in select jurisdictions, will be able to participate in Parachain Auctions in the next few days. They can contribute Kusama to a project's parachain slot auction from today. The “Staking” vertical on the Kraken platform has now been renamed to “Earn,” and eligible clients will be able to easily participate in auction rounds with just a few clicks.

“Kraken is not just an exchange: it’s a platform that enables clients to seamlessly and securely participate in a whole range of cryptocurrency-related activities,” said Jeremy Welch, Kraken’s Chief Product Officer. “Parachain Auctions open up a whole new vista for cryptocurrency holders so they can back projects that will likely make substantive changes to various aspects of our lives. Kraken is proud to support these activities, as our role is to be a key infrastructure provider for the space.”

Parachain Auctions are an innovative new mechanism that allows projects to compete for slots on Kusama’s Relay Chain, enabling token projects to launch on their own individual layer-1 blockchain but with their security rooted into Kusama’s ecosystem. Parachain Auctions are set to launch on Polkadot sometime later this year.

In a Parachain Auction, KSM holders effectively vote for the project they want to succeed by locking their KSM on the Kusama network. The projects with the most KSM locked on their behalf will generally win a Parachain slot for up to 48 weeks. Once the lockup period is over, holders also get their contributed KSM back.

To find out more about Parachain Auctions, please visit the Kraken Support Center or contact [e-mail]. Jeremy Welch and Brian Hoffman are available for interview.

About Kraken

With best-in-class security and daily volumes stretching into the hundreds of millions, and billions, Kraken offers one of the most liquid, diverse, and secure venues for all sorts of cryptocurrency services.

Founded in 2011, Kraken has experienced explosive growth as it enters its tenth year of operation. Indeed, 2021 is already a record year for Kraken. Year-to-date, Kraken has processed more than $420 billion in trading volume, more than three times the volume reported in 2020, our best year on record. May is Kraken’s best month on record. In a single day, Kraken processed just under $12 billion traded volume, which exceeded most historical monthly volumes, and was more than 40x the average daily volumes in 2020 Kraken continues to see an influx in new customers. Total signups in the first two months of the year were triple the number of signups we had for the whole of H2 2020.

Parachain Auctions on Kraken are not available to residents of the US, Canada, Japan, and Australia at this time.