Kraken Delists Namecoin after Meager Trading Volume
Bitcoin and digital asset exchange Kraken has ceased Namecoin trading form the exchange after determining that the currency did not warrant the effort to continue support due to low trading volumes.
Kraken has revealed that it will not continue to keep or support Namecoin, following an assessment of supported coins in its exchange prior to making certain technical upgrades.
A blog post by Kraken explains that the exchange had to “reassess which coins were worth keeping and which would be worth the additional effort to continue to maintain.” In making the assessment, it was determined that Namecoin did not make the cut, due to low trading volumes for the currency. As a result of the lack of trading, Namecoin was delisted from Kraken on May 23.
An excerpt from the blog read:
It is no longer possible to deposit or trade Namecoin on the exchange and clients with Namecoin balances should withdraw their funds as soon as possible.
At its peak, Namecoin had amassed a market cap of over $97 million, a high achieved in November 2013 by the currency. Currently, the currency holds a market cap of just over $5 million, according to Coinmarketcap .
Kraken insisted that Namecoin’s delisting does not reflect on the “merits of Namecoin as a digital asset.”
The exchange claimed to be supporters of Namecoin for a long time and stuck to supporting the token through merged mining and a trying time when a fundamental flaw was discovered within Namecoin. At the time, Namecoin which is the basis for a decentralized domain name system (DNS), was found to contain a flaw which potentially allowed any ‘.bit’ domain to be compromised, by anyone.
Namecoin has seen a marked decrease in trading and market cap since its 2013 highs. Brief respite followed toward mid-2015 but the decline continued soon after, despite the near zero-trading fees offered by exchanges like Kraken.
“Unfortunately, this was not enough to garner the loyalty of the Namecoin trading community, and subsequently the revenues from trading Namecoin,” Kraken explained before adding that the currency did not justify continued support.
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