Kraken to List BAT and WAVES

U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is likely trying to draw in more active users with its two new listings – Waves (WAVES) and Basic Attention Token (BAT).

The company made the announcement in a blog post this Wednesday, stating that deposits and withdrawals for the two cryptocurrencies will be enabled at approximately 13:30 UTC on August 22. The exchange has said that trading and funding will be enabled at the same time, and that buy orders can be placed right away. It also mentioned:

“The first trade executions will take a bit longer because sell orders cannot be placed until deposits are credited.”

This move is most likely an attempt to draw in a portion of the more than 5.5 million active monthly users of the Brave Browser, which uses BAT as a way to pay content creators and publishers through a tip system. Brave also awards BAT to its users for their attention, mainly for watching privacy preserving ads. The WAVES token, on the other hand, is backed by a growing ecosystem and is the native currency of the Waves blockchain, which is a decentralized platform that enables anyone to create their own cryptocurrencies and supports crypto collectibles.

According to the announcement, both tokens will have trading pairs with the USD, EUR, XBT and ETH. The exchange has also stated that while BAT transaction confirmations will take approximately six minutes, WAVES will require around eight. Kraken has also made sure to warn their users:

“Limit orders are recommended when trading starts since the markets may be illiquid initially. Be extremely careful with market orders and orders that trigger market orders (e.g. stop loss).”

According to Nelson Minier, head of over-the-counter (OTC) trading at Kraken, the exchange has experienced a 2,000% increase in trading volume for its OTC cryptocurrency trading desk. He revealed the news on 20 August, in an episode of The Block’s podcast, The Scoop.