Kraken Goes Down Under: Adds Australian Dollar Trading Pairs

Kraken, one of the biggest crypto exchanges out there, has recently announced that it had added support for Australian Dollar trading pairs, as well as account funding.

Pushing Into The Australian Trading Space

The AUD now stands as tradeable with all the significant assets on the platform: Ether (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

With the integration of the AUD, this stands as the seventh fiat currency that Kraken has added support for, joining alongside names like the CAD, USD, JPY, EUR, CHF, and the GBP.

Officially Starting On The 17th

Clients of Kraken that aren’t based within the US will also be capable of trading AUD-based trading pairs against the other fiats, like the JPY, the USD, and the EUR.

The Kraken platform will officially launch support for the AUD on the 17th of June, and Australian users are capable of depositing fiat on the exchange. They will be able to do this through Australian banks that hold support for Osko/PayID payments.

Leveraging Bit Trade’s Resources

The move itself comes shortly after the firm had successfully acquired Bit Trade, the longest-running Australia-based crypto exchange, back in January of this year. With this acquisition, Kraken could onboard the entire team of Bit Trade to itself, and Jonathon Miller, the CEO of Bit Trade, was given the role of Kraken’s Australia Arm’s managing director.

Bit Trade successfully launched back in 2013, and grew to cater to both over-the-counter trading desks, as well as retail exchange. BIt Trade further stands as a founding member of the Blockchain Australia association, as well.

WIth this AUD integration, Kraken stands as one of a large number of international crypto exchanges that have come to view for a share of Australia’s bustling crypto market.

The New Crypto Frontier

Coinbase piled in first, all the way back in 2016. It expanded in Australia, and incorporated support for debit card purchases in AUD.

In March of 2019, Binance joined in as well, launching a fiat on-ramp for their Australian users by way of Binance light. Back in January of 2020, however, Binance expanded on this, allowing for limited support of deposits made in AUD for its international exchange platform.

However, not all international exchanges have proved to be successful in the Australian arena. Huobi Australia officially ceased all operations within the country back in February of 2019. The official reasoning for this was due to “poor market conditions.” The office lasted eight months of the grueling Crypto Winter, before finally giving up.