Kraken restored spot and derivatives trading on October 30, 2026 after connectivity problems blocked some customers for about 60 minutes. The exchange first logged the issue at 02:42 UTC and marked it resolved at 03:42 UTC, according to its status page and reports from Wu Blockchain.
The disruption affected the website and mobile app, as well as REST, WebSocket and FIX connections used by traders and automated systems. Derivatives cross-exchange transfers were also listed among the affected services. During the outage, several users reported failed trades, blocked withdrawals and error messages while trying to buy crypto during a market drop. One trader said trading and withdrawals were blocked while the platform appeared to be in post-only mode, though Kraken did not confirm a platform-wide restriction.
Kraken did not provide a technical reason for the failure, nor did it disclose how many orders were rejected, how many accounts were affected, or whether customers lost money. The outage followed scheduled maintenance on October 29, which was completed at 08:17 UTC, and a separate FIX API problem earlier that morning, but Kraken said it had not linked those events to the October 30 disruption.
Unconfirmed reports also circulated during the outage alleging that Kraken had more than $130 million in exposure to Aave. Kraken has not confirmed the claim, and nothing showed that the alleged exposure caused the outage. An October 28 Circle case study said more than $350 million in USDC had entered Kraken's DeFi Earn vaults since launch, but that figure counts customer deposits and does not represent Kraken's own exposure.
Kraken had also told customers it was monitoring a security incident at Binance before the outage, but it has not tied the two events. Markets are running again, though the exchange has yet to explain what broke or what changes it plans to make. The incident raises questions about operational reliability at a time when exchange stability remains critical for trader confidence.
