SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kraken, a San Francisco-based Bitcoin exchange, is pleased to announce the launch of margin trading.Margin is an exciting instrument that allows clients to amplify their trading profits and gain in both up and down markets.Kraken is now one of the few exchanges allowing clients to trade bitcoins on margin.Within the next few weeks, Kraken will be offering up to 20x leverage.Margin trading is available to clients who have verified their accounts to Tier 3 or Tier 4.Click here to learn more about how to become verified to Tier 3 or Tier 4.Currently margin trading is only available for the bitcoin-euro currency pair (XBT/EUR).However, clients can margin trade the XBT/EUR pair using their USD balance.At launch, Kraken is initially offering up to 3x leverage, meaning that a margined position can gain 3x more than the underlying move in bitcoin price.A 4% gain in bitcoin price means a 12% gain in a 3x long position.

Traders can similarly leverage their gains when the market drops.A 4% drop in bitcoin price means a 12% gain in a 3x short position.Opening a margin position is as simple as toggling a button in the order form to select the level of leverage and all the other order details work the same way they do for normal trades, including the many advanced order types Kraken supports.bitcoin exchange sydneyOpen positions are easily closed with an opposing leveraged order.bitcoin pools comparisonIf you go long 3 bitcoins with a leveraged buy order, you can close the position by selling 3 bitcoins in a leveraged sell order.bitcoin iso linuxInitially there is no extra fee for margin trading.qiwi-perfect money-bitcoin

You simply pay your normal trade fee on the opening and closing volume of the margin position.So if you would normally pay 0.10% for a trade, you will pay 0.10% to open a margin position and 0.10% to close that position.Positions open for more than 24 hours will also be charged a 0.05% renewal fee to keep the position open for the next 24 hours.salja litecoin sverigeTraders who wish to avoid this fee should close their position within 24 hours.ethereum potential valueFor more information on the benefits and risks of margin trading, please see Kraken’s Trading Guide and FAQ.bitcoin kurs 10 jahreAbout Kraken: ) is the largest Bitcoin exchange in euro volume and liquidity and also trading US dollars, British pounds and Japanese yen.bitcoin mining jokes

Kraken is consistently rated the best and most secure Bitcoin exchange by independent news media.Kraken was the first Bitcoin exchange listed on Bloomberg terminals, the first to pass a cryptographically verifiable proof-of-reserves audit, and is a partner in the first cryptocurrency bank.buffett bitcoin not a currencyKraken is trusted by hundreds of thousands of traders, the Tokyo government’s court-appointed trustee, and Germany’s BaFin regulated Fidor Bank. | Employees:11 - 50 | 3 in CrunchbaseBased in San Francisco, Kraken is a bitcoin exchange in euro volume and liquidity that trades various currencies, including Canadian dollars, US dollars, British pounds, and Japanese yen.It is known as the first to have trading price and volume displayed on the Bloomberg terminal as well as to pass a cryptographically verifiable proof-of-reserves audit.Its clientele is comprised of numerous traders, Tokyo government's court-appointed trustee, and Germany's BaFin regulated Fidor Bank.

Its fee schedules are tier-based and fees are charged on a per-trade basis.Kraken is also in partnership with the first cryptocurrency bank.Amount / RoundValuationLead InvestorInvestorsundisclosed amount / Series B—Money Partners Group1$5M / Series A—Hummingbird Ventures9$1.5M / Seed——3InvestorRound(s)Partner(s)Blockchain CapitalSeed-Series A-Digital Currency GroupSeries A-Hummingbird VenturesSeries A (Lead)Pamir GelenbeJesse PowellSeed-Jimmy FurlandSeries A-Kevin BombinoSeries A-Meni RosenfeldSeries A-Money Partners GroupSeries B (Lead)-Pamir GelenbeSeries A-Roger VerSeed-Trace MayerSeries A-Trammell VenturesSeries A-DateAcquiredAmountMar 1, 2017CryptowatchUnknownDec 13, 2016GlideraUnknownJun 28, 2016CleverCoinUnknownJan 17, 2016CavirtexUnknownJan 17, 2016CoinsetterUnknownPamir GelenbeInvestorJesse PowellFounder & CEOLilia VershininaHead of Banking RelationsdigitalcoinsexchangeThe latest addition to the list is Ether which is the official cryptocurrency of Ethereum.DateNews - Kraken acquires Cryptowatch - Kraken Acquires Cryptowatch and Launches New Trading Platform - Kraken acquires bitcoin wallet service Glidera - CleverCoin is being acquired by Kraken, worlds market leader in Euro trading - Kraken Acquires Dutch Bitcoin Exchange CleverCoin - Kraken Receives Series B Round from Japan-Based Money Partners Group - Are Bitcoin Businesses Targets for Online Extortion?

- Dubai Museum of the Future Foundation Launches Global Blockchain CouncilLoading Krakenfx's tweets...Kraken Bitcoin Exchange on TwitterHeadquarters548 Market Street #39656San Francisco, California 94104-5401United StatesGiven that the Brexit is still fresh in our minds — the big question of “how will the global financial elite diversify their assets” is one that every money manager and their clients are discussing this weekend.Great timing for a Bitcoin post!I sent a tweet out earlier this morning (followed by a tweet storm!)and there was a lot of activity around it and I felt compelled to explain it in more detail.One of the key themes of a prior post I wrote in 2014, was that the Bitcoin exchange infrastructure for the ordinary man on the street was not yet in place, and that this fact would be partially responsible for the subsequent sideways/downward trading in Bitcoin that eventually occurred as predicted.To recap a quote from that post (dated March 31st 2014), entitled Finding Equilibrium:In my subsequent post 2 months ago, entitled Bitcoin 2016, I referenced the changes since the prior post:What I didn’t cover in this post is what happened to the OTC (Over The Counter) market.The OTC market has continued to grow, and there are an estimated 10–15 formal OTC brokers out there for Bitcoin with any real volume, and maybe 3–4 who are more well known and trusted, such as Harry Yeh of Binary Financial and a few more referenced by Wong Joon Ian in his Coindesk post, (which is well worth reading) on OTC Bitcoin trading.

In the case of LocalBitcoins, they deal with smaller transactions but many exchanges also facilitate larger trades, off-book.Many of the very wealthy individuals that I know who are looking to get into Bitcoin are not going to the exchanges.The limits are not significant enough for them.If a High Net-Worth Individual (HNI) has a net worth of $100m and wanted to place just $1m of that into Bitcoin as a hedge against market disruption, it would be imprudent of him to place that order on the open market.That is a single trade of over 1,000 BTC and it would push his price up (called slippage) significantly.Instead, he would call a broker, agree on a price (typically a few dollars above market spot price), and then perform the trade outside the market.The broker would match buyers and sellers and the exchange volume would not reflect the buying or selling activity for that trade.Now, imagine if a billionaire wanted to allocate 0.5% of his or her assets to Bitcoin.That is simply not possible on exchanges.In doing some background research for this blog post, I spoke to a couple of OTC traders that I know and gathered the following data points:The largest purchase I was able to uncover is around $50m on the OTC market and regular 8 figure purchases are now common.

Given the scale of purchases this size, an order like this has to be filled using tranches.Brokers typically fill and price orders like this in 6,000–8,000 BTC tranches to prevent the market from pushing the price up and therefore it’s a combination of matching sellers and buyers, and then backfilling the balance from the exchanges (!!— nb, exchanges are being used for top ups, not primary transactions).Typically, this year has been largely 66% buyers — 33% sellers in the OTC market according to my sources, but since the Brexit last week and the recent run-up, even more buyers have entered the OTC market — which is not being reflected in the price.My key point in this blog post is that exchange volume doesn’t represent true market based Bitcoin demand and supply.Traders are technically trading on only a portion of the deals being transacted.Also, a lot of trading on the exchange market is back and forth arbitrage trading — not true demand (for e.g.buy and hold), so trade volumes are heavily inflated.

For example, I could take $10,000 and trade (buy & sell) that volume at least 5 times per day using a bot and generate over $1m in exchange volume during the course of the month.This means nothing, but it inflates the volumes we see on exchanges.Exchange to Exchange price arbitrage also makes up a large portion of the volume.OTC brokers are also heavily used in cases where individuals are trying to circumvent exchange controls and so this is going to become an even more common use case, as exchanges cannot operate in those markets effectively.I think I’ve been pretty on-the-money with my predictions on Bitcoin over the past couple of years, and after it quickly broke through the $700 adjusted ATH (All Time High) barrier that I wrote about in my previous post, I was stunned.My gut reaction was that I was wrong about the expected liquidity pool and resistance at $700 and the market was speaking for itself after it zoomed past $725 and was going to head straight to $1151.Then, after it went closer to $800, it suddenly stopped, dropped and rolled down to $550 — now at c.$650 — which is what I originally predicted.I’ve been giving this volatility a lot of thought this past week — and this post sums up why I think that using exchange data, although somewhat reliable, doesn’t tell the whole picture on a supply/demand basis.

High Net Worth Individuals are not buying Bitcoin through exchanges — they need to use brokers for the amount that they are buying or will not move the dial for them on their goals.This also infers that, technically, exchanges today are thinly traded.If I wanted to buy $50m in Bitcoin, what would prevent me from shorting the market by with $2–5m, forcing the price down and then buying $50m in volume from OTC traders who have clients panicking?Market manipulation, although seemingly unlikely, is entirely plausible in a thinly traded market where large trades happen outside the exchange.This will change if and when the Bitcoin price and market cap is sufficiently large and liquid enough that 10k BTC trades (enough for an OTC tranche) would not move the price significantly.Another point worth noting is that large BTC buyers who are looking to diversify their portfolios are typically buy and hold buyers.They do not get panicked (they don’t care if they lose it as they are already wealthy) — so it’s a diversification strategy and when these transactions happen, the coins are permanently removed from the market (for a couple of years, at the very least).

This means that if we’re looking at exchange data, the number of short positions in the market could be quickly squeezed out if there is a price rise to a point of high liquidity where buy transactions move from OTC back into the exchanges (causing the short squeezes I have been predicting in prior posts).In summary, until we have a marketplace where OTC brokers are not needed to fulfill large orders, Bitcoin will be volatile.There is a significant amount of money from the global financial elite that is still sitting on the sidelines and now looking to get in, given the Brexit and other unfolding global politicol events and once it does there will be a short squeeze on traders currently shorting Bitcoin because the exchange volumes do not accurately reflect the demand side of the equation and the upcoming halving day is going to choke the supply of new coins.Bloomberg’s latest article, simply proves my point around sentiment, but what they miss is that the 1% are not using exchanges…