Kraken to suspend trading for USDT, DAI, WBTC, WETH and WAXL in Canada

Kraken will suspend all transactions related to Tether (USDT), Dai (DAI), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Wrapped Ether (WET) and Wrapped Axelar (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, “We constantly monitor the assets on our platform to ensure we are meeting the highest compliance standards in the crypto industry,” before confirming the suspensions.

Per the spokesperson:

“In accordance with recent Canadian regulatory changes and following extensive consultation with the CSA and OSC, we today notified our clients that we will soon be suspending trading for USDT, DAI, WBTC, WETH, and WAXL.”

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

The suspensions may not surprise many Canadian cryptocurrency users, as they come on the heels of several other notable exchanges taking similar actions throughout 2023. In August, Coinbase ceased trading USDT, DAI and RAI, following a similar move by Crypto.com after it had previously delisted USDT.

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

Kraken, for its part, appears to be continuing operations in Canada and will merely be suspending transactions related to five specific assets.

According to the email, “as of November 30th,” deposits and trading functions will cease for the aforementioned assets. Then, “as of December 4th,” users will no longer be able to perform withdrawals of the associated assets.

Finally, “as of December 5th,” continues the email, any remaining related assets will be converted to U.S. dollars at the “prevailing market rate” and credited to users’ accounts.

Related: Canada central bank assesses innovations and challenges of DeFi

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