[2019-09-17] Bug on Kraken Let Users Buy Bitcoin at Levels Below Market Price

[Kakmakr]

On Sept. 13, United States-based crypto exchange Kraken experienced a bug that allowed some users to buy or sell Bitcoin (BTC) at a notably different price from Bitcoin’s actual market price due to a reported system bug.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bug-on-kraken-let-users-buy-bitcoin-2k-cheaper-and-sell-2k-higher

Kraken is a US-based cryptocurrency exchange, founded in 2011. I would have thought that they would at least sorted out most of the software issues in the 8 years that they have been operating as an exchange. 

The weakest point in Bitcoin is not the protocol, but rather the 3rd party software that are being used in services like exchanges and wallet providers. 

[1715053405]

1715053405

[1715053405]

1715053405

[1715053405]

1715053405

[1715053405]

1715053405

[ene1980]

On Sept. 13, United States-based crypto exchange Kraken experienced a bug that allowed some users to buy or sell Bitcoin (BTC) at a notably different price from Bitcoin’s actual market price due to a reported system bug.

I have seen many cases where people are able to trade below market prize in the past and when ever i am trading i never came across such bugs  .

Kraken is a US-based cryptocurrency exchange, founded in 2011. I would have thought that they would at least sorted out most of the software issues in the 8 years that they have been operating as an exchange. 

When they are tweaking the back end these sort of bugs will happen, instead if they do those and have extensive test before applying in the main application these sort of issues will be sorted. What happen when someone's sell orders are executed at a lower rate than the market prize, will they void those or that is only applicable to users that purchases at a lower rate.

[hugeblack]

It's more than "Bug." You can read more about this with this Tweet ----> https://twitter.com/krakenfx/status/1172948393196277761
Kraken stealing from its clients by artificially triggering stop loss BTC/USD
It's been discussed here on this subject.
Although the platform will bear all the losses resulting from this "Bug," there are a lot of dark things around Kraken. (be careful.)

[LeGaulois]

It's more than "Bug." You can read more about this with this Tweet ----> https://twitter.com/krakenfx/status/1172948393196277761
Kraken stealing from its clients by artificially triggering stop loss BTC/USD
It's been discussed here on this subject.
Although the platform will bear all the losses resulting from this "Bug," there are a lot of dark things around Kraken. (be careful.)

No idea how it's possible to run a test on a live environment if the guys aren't sure for the results and at least made several tests before
Not saying Kraken is not telling the truth but it remembers me this news 2-3 months ago https://blockonomi.com/bitcoin-flash-crash-kraken/
Maybe they're trying to disguise things to avoid a point and shaking money to comfort people. 

[Theb]

Kraken is a US-based cryptocurrency exchange, founded in 2011. I would have thought that they would at least sorted out most of the software issues in the 8 years that they have been operating as an exchange. 

We can't rule out the possibility that the bug was created purposely by their own organization or at least some of their mischievous employees to take advantage of the market. With us seeing reports about crypto exchanges faking data from the volume as well as faking the bids then  I don't see any reason why can't they pretend to create a bug just to take advantage of the market as well. I'm not saying that is what happened but it is just one of the possibilities why even with the 8 years they have in operating we still encounter flaws in their platform.

[hatshepsut93]

The weakest point in Bitcoin is not the protocol, but rather the 3rd party software that are being used in services like exchanges and wallet providers. 

Problems with software happen all the time with everyone, what makes Bitcoin different is that errors have much more serious consequences, because transactions are irreversible. It's not like Bitcoin's ecosystem has worse programmers than banks and payment companies.

[serjent05]

Kraken is a US-based cryptocurrency exchange, founded in 2011. I would have thought that they would at least sorted out most of the software issues in the 8 years that they have been operating as an exchange. 

We can't rule out the possibility that the bug was created purposely by their own organization or at least some of their mischievous employees to take advantage of the market. With us seeing reports about crypto exchanges faking data from the volume as well as faking the bids then  I don't see any reason why can't they pretend to create a bug just to take advantage of the market as well. I'm not saying that is what happened but it is just one of the possibilities why even with the 8 years they have in operating we still encounter flaws in their platform.

Indeed, it is a very suspicious event.  If not the exchanges itself or the staff that is incharge of the operation, then who would have the ability to do so.  I also seen this kind of stuff in other exchanges  seeing trade transactions way lower than the bid prices.  This thing do not happen just once and not only one exchange do this kind of stuff I think.

It's more than "Bug." You can read more about this with this Tweet ----> https://twitter.com/krakenfx/status/1172948393196277761
Kraken stealing from its clients by artificially triggering stop loss BTC/USD
It's been discussed here on this subject.
Although the platform will bear all the losses resulting from this "Bug," there are a lot of dark things around Kraken. (be careful.)

Well this isn't the first time we have seen or heard about negative stuff about Kraken exchange.  We must take note of this thing and be vigilant whenever we are using that exchange or best to avoid it for now.

[figmentofmyass]

It's more than "Bug." You can read more about this with this Tweet ----> https://twitter.com/krakenfx/status/1172948393196277761
Kraken stealing from its clients by artificially triggering stop loss BTC/USD
It's been discussed here on this subject.
Although the platform will bear all the losses resulting from this "Bug," there are a lot of dark things around Kraken. (be careful.)

kraken won't bear all the losses.

they openly admitted to running all stop orders in the $8k-$12k range, and that probably includes margin liquidations too, though i'm not sure. then they told people---in a twitter reply---to contact them if they feel they were adversely affected.

so they aren't automatically rolling back wrongfully triggered orders. they also don't seem to be directly contacting affected customers! lots of customers will just take the losses and move on, not knowing they have any recourse. we also don't know whether they are fully refunding affected traders either. all we know is they've been told to submit a ticket.

very shady behavior on kraken's part! i was thinking of opening an account there but i'll pass for now.

[1Referee]

When they are tweaking the back end these sort of bugs will happen, instead if they do those and have extensive test before applying in the main application these sort of issues will be sorted.

It could very well be that they already did that, but the circumstances during the tests didn't trigger the bug. In that case it's very unfortunate. Another possibility is that they just assumed it was ok and then rushed to push it live, which if so, is a clear indication of incompetent developers and operators.

In the end, I think that when you're trading on a centralized platform, you after the risks of seeing an exchange get hacked and whatnot, also have to factor in these events. Good thing for the traders is that bugs of this severety don't usually happen. An exchange will always try to prevent compensating traders where possible, especially with how shareholders don't want their margins to suffer due to negligence.

[Kakmakr]

It's more than "Bug." You can read more about this with this Tweet ----> https://twitter.com/krakenfx/status/1172948393196277761
Kraken stealing from its clients by artificially triggering stop loss BTC/USD
It's been discussed here on this subject.
Although the platform will bear all the losses resulting from this "Bug," there are a lot of dark things around Kraken. (be careful.)

kraken won't bear all the losses.

they openly admitted to running all stop orders in the $8k-$12k range, and that probably includes margin liquidations too, though i'm not sure. then they told people---in a twitter reply---to contact them if they feel they were adversely affected.

so they aren't automatically rolling back wrongfully triggered orders. they also don't seem to be directly contacting affected customers! lots of customers will just take the losses and move on, not knowing they have any recourse. we also don't know whether they are fully refunding affected traders either. all we know is they've been told to submit a ticket.

very shady behavior on kraken's part! i was thinking of opening an account there but i'll pass for now.

I was not affected by this, but I had a test account there and I closed it. I create "test" accounts on all exchanges to compare their services with other platforms, but this was the last straw for me. Kraken should really consider doing some proper Beta testing with new updates to their platform, before they go live. 

The "roll back" will not recover the losses of people who do not know about this option and to my knowledge nobody received person emails to inform them of this problem. They might have emailed the people that were affected, but I doubt it. 

[serjent05]

The "roll back" will not recover the losses of people who do not know about this option and to my knowledge nobody received person emails to inform them of this problem. They might have emailed the people that were affected, but I doubt it. 

Well, if they are into this shady things, it is reasonable to believe that they will not notify users about this "bug".  They intent to get  more money with this "bug" and those who have not noticed it will surely will not complain about the losses.  No complaint = more gathered money from the "bug". I believe it is as simple as that, so why spend effort emailing people to hinder their plan.

[joelsamuya]

The weakest point in Bitcoin is not the protocol, but rather the 3rd party software that are being used in services like exchanges and wallet providers. 

I fully agree with this statement. Bitcoin itself for now is very safe but those businesses or entities surrounding it are the ones exhibiting many different types and forms of weaknesses. However, this is just part of the evolution of the whole ecosystem and I think that there is no platform that is really perfect in all aspects. This is a reminder to all exchanges to be always pro-active and settle small things while they are still in infancy.

[davis196]

On Sept. 13, United States-based crypto exchange Kraken experienced a bug that allowed some users to buy or sell Bitcoin (BTC) at a notably different price from Bitcoin’s actual market price due to a reported system bug.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bug-on-kraken-let-users-buy-bitcoin-2k-cheaper-and-sell-2k-higher

Kraken is a US-based cryptocurrency exchange, founded in 2011. I would have thought that they would at least sorted out most of the software issues in the 8 years that they have been operating as an exchange.  

The weakest point in Bitcoin is not the protocol, but rather the 3rd party software that are being used in services like exchanges and wallet providers.  

Is this really a bug?Maybe it's a sneaky way for the Kraken owners to get some bitcoins at a cheaper price and cover this scam by calling it a "bug".
I don't believe such big and established crypto exchange platform to have such amateurish problem.
Why don't all the other big platforms have the same issue?

[1Referee]

I don't believe such big and established crypto exchange platform to have such amateurish problem.
Why don't all the other big platforms have the same issue?

Every platform's trading engine is different so it makes sense that they don't have the same problems.

Bitmex, a very large exchange has been dealing with "overload errors" for quite a long time now, with no intention to solve it. That's way worse in my book.

Binance "losing" 7000BTC were CZ has requested a roll back of the Bitcoin blockchain, now that's amateurish. If that wasn't enough, hackers managed to game their withdrawal system multiple times. For an exchange that controls over 400,000BTC that's scary.

Coinbase this year has paid out $30,000 to someone as bug bounty, which is quite a big deal since they usually hand out amounts in the $100-$1000 range. It was severe enough for Coinbase to not disclose what that bug actually was.

[Harlot]

Every platform's trading engine is different so it makes sense that they don't have the same problems.

Bitmex, a very large exchange has been dealing with "overload errors" for quite a long time now, with no intention to solve it. That's way worse in my book.

Binance "losing" 7000BTC were CZ has requested a roll back of the Bitcoin blockchain, now that's amateurish. If that wasn't enough, hackers managed to game their withdrawal system multiple times. For an exchange that controls over 400,000BTC that's scary.

Coinbase this year has paid out $30,000 to someone as bug bounty, which is quite a big deal since they usually hand out amounts in the $100-$1000 range. It was severe enough for Coinbase to not disclose what that bug actually was.

I'll understand it more if the issues are not trade related like delays in withdrawals or bugs that don't change the tides in the market but this one is really suspicious to begin with. Market orders are supposed to be matched at the current offered price while the "bug" Kraken has lets you match the orders way below the market value which if abused by a lot of people can change the price in the world market. Other "bugs" I have seen are inflated volumes and fake bid orders where both numbers can influence the market as well. I'm no computer geek but this kinds of bugs shouldn't be undetected for this long and the crypto exchanges having this kinds of problems are lucky enough that authorities are not questioning every hiccup in their system. 

[BitHodler]

Is this really a bug?Maybe it's a sneaky way for the Kraken owners to get some bitcoins at a cheaper price and cover this scam by calling it a "bug".

I don't think they have to resort to these practices in order to gain an upper hand in this market. As exchange they can easily front run whale orders and benefit from the slippage to scoop up an easy few percent profit.

That's something they could repeat over and over again for years without anyone even noticing. Kraken might not have dealt with this bug accordingly, but that's not enough for me to consider it shady behavior.

Also, it doesn't even make much sense because you can only pull of a cheat (if it was that which I don't believe is the case) like that once, because another similar occurrence and their reputation as reputable exchange is gone.