Kraken Shuts Down Abu Dhabi Office, Suspends Support For AED

Kraken, the cryptocurrency exchange located in San Francisco, has many employees. Reports and surveys indicate that these staff members will remain in the Middle East and North Africa. The regional MD director of Twitter, Benjamin Ampen, will also go along with Kraken employees following the transition.

Understanding Stack Chain: The company claimed, “From the 1st day of this year, macroeconomic and geopolitical factors have contemplated financial markets.” This could be one of the reasons why Kraken suspends support for AED.

Trading Ceased in Kraken’s Abu Dhabi Office

The world’s largest cryptocurrency trade center, Kraken, has shut down its office in Abu Dhabi in less than 12 months. This decision to close its office was executed only after receiving executive approval to operate in the region.

Bloomberg released a survey on February 2, 2023. As per the survey, Kraken closed its Abu Dhabi office, discontinuing around eight people on the team concerned with the Middle East and North Africa, or MENA.

Since April 2022, the cryptocurrency exchange has had legal rights to provide facilities in the Abu Dhabi International Financial Center and Abu Dhabi Global Market. Before the market downturn, Kraken had also been open for people to buy or sell cryptocurrencies using fiat currencies. And truth be told, Kraken’s functioning has affected many crypto firms.

Kraken Assistant Confirms the Shutdown

Cointelegraph, the primary independent digital media resource, overplays several news stories on blockchain technology, crypto assets, and apparent fintech trends. In one of Cointelegraph’s interviews, a Kraken spokesperson settled on the fact that the company is on ‘shutdown.’

He revealed the reason behind keeping the crypto firm shut down. The assistant said, “Kraken had pronounced to close the office and discontinue support for the dirham, or AED (official Dubai currency). This decision had been taken because of a review of its ‘business lines.'”

However, users actively participating in Kraken can enter the platform. This can be done by dealing with alternate fiat currencies. A handful of Kraken employees will stay in the area. That being said, Kraken MENA managing director Benjamin Ampen will also reportedly assist these employees.

Cutting Off the workforce following crypto Disorders

Citing the rigid market state, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken said it would deliberately divide its global workforce by 30%. The previous year, the firm noticed the paralyzing demand for digital assets in November. And then and there, more than 1,000 employees were disconnected from Kraken.

This is a great effort taken on behalf of Kraken to survive the crypto winter. CEO and co-founder of Kraken, Jesse Powell, described higher interest rates and their effects on Kraken. The economic downturn has pulled back cryptocurrencies. It’s because now the investors have fled risky assets. And all of these result in bankruptcies & uncertainty.

Kraken CEO Jesse Powell prompts about ‘dangerous occurrences’ being the sole reason for closing the crypto exchange headquarters in Abu Dhabi. With this, Kraken becomes one of the latest tech companies to give notice of shutting down its headquarters in the city.

Drop in Trading Volumes Leads to Kraken Shut Down

Staking cryptocurrency to earn rewards is as good as on the largest crypto exchange, Kraken. But the same Kraken said it had witnessed a downfall in trading volumes. Fewer clients sign up, so dismissals in the number of employees will soon take the total headcount to where it was a year ago.

In November 2022, crypto exchange Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN.O) brought down jobs in its recruiting and institutional onboarding teams. Similarly, Kraken was forced to slash jobs because of the failed measures to coordinate with current demand.

Earlier, Kraken slowed hiring and pulled back marketing spending, and presently, it has shut down its Abu Dhabi office. The CEO of a prominent U.S.-based crypto exchange, Powell, announced in September 2022 that he is stepping down as CEO but will stay on board.

On January 31, 2023, Kraken again pulled out of Japan. This was the second time the crypto exchange was terminated from the Central Asian economy. The first time it did the same was reported in April 2018.

The firm declared in the last month of the previous year, “The withdrawal move is something less than the resource allocation.” It further cited, “Disturbed market conditions in Japan and a weak crypto market throughout the world are the two reasons we are shutting down.”