Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has updated users on a new bug that allowed certain clients to buy BTC at $8000 or sell at $12000.

Kraken Exchange Bug 

According to the notice published to Kraken’s official Twitter account, the exchange was testing an unreleased advanced order type when it encountered a bug.

The glitch led to a system error where orders were priced against the wrong side of the book. Certain clients were able to purchase bitcoin at $8,000 per coin while others were able to sell at $12,000 against the tester without an intervene in liquidity being cleared (despite the market price of BTC hovering around $10,300).

Kraken explained that because of the bug, orders were executed on either side of the $8K – $12K spread, without any liquidity in between being exhausted. However, stop orders were apparently triggered and correctly filled.

Community members were quick to criticize the exchange for allowing such a significant bug to occur on a test that was being run in a live market. 

Jesse Powell, co-founder and CEO of Kraken, defended the exchange’s actions by explaining that products have to be live-tested eventually, even if there is a chance of error. 

 

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