Attention Kraken Shoppers! Ether Was Half Off at $700 During Monday’s Crypto Sale

No, it wasn’t a misprint. 

Ether (ETH), the second biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, at one point traded on the Kraken exchange at less than half the prices found on other exchanges during Monday’s massive sell-off.

Amid the market melee that pummeled crypto assets across the board, ether’s price went as low as $1,546.53, down from around $1,800, according to CoinDesk 20 data. However, that number was a staggeringly low $700 on Kraken.

In a one-minute time span, the ETH/USD pair on Kraken dropped to $700 at UTC 14:20 Monday from $1,628.82 just approximately three minutes prior.

The breathtaking drop wasn’t only relegated to ether. Trading of cardano (ADA)  suffered a similar fate on Kraken, with the ADA/USD pair slumping to $0.156 at 14:23 UTC from $0.842 three minutes prior. During the same hour, the lowest price of cardano recorded on CoinDesk 20 was at $0.835.

“We saw the price of some digital assets such as ether and ADA have a sharp downward movement this morning on multiple trading venues just after 14:00 UTC,” a spokesperson from Kraken told CoinDesk in response to the abnormally low prices of ether and ADA on the exchange. “Kraken also saw a surge in sell orders around this time.”

“We’re communicating directly with clients and ask that anyone with questions about their account please open a ticket,” the spokesperson said, declining to comment further on the issue.

This is not the first time this type of “flash crash” occurred on Kraken, according to Trustnodes, which noted the problem on Kraken in 2018. The report indicated that such incidents usually occur when a trader accidentally entered a wrong number during trading, a behavior nicknamed “fat finger error.”

Ether’s trading volume on Kraken logged more than $888 million on Monday alone, more than double that of Friday’s figure.

At press time, ether is trading at $1,749.94, down 8.92% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk 20 data. On Kraken, it's at $1777.02, down 8.19%.

Apparently, sale time is over.