Tarek William Saab, the Attorney General of Venezuela, announced the second wave of arrests related to cryptocurrency money laundering cases, which originated from unregistered oil sales paid in different currencies and cryptocurrencies. Former president of the state-owned oil company PDVSA, Tareck El Aissami, former economic minister Simon Alejandro Zerpa, and entrepreneur Samark Lopez have been arrested. They are accused of laundering money through exchanges such as Kraken and investing in cryptocurrency mining.

Kraken, one of the largest centralized crypto exchange platforms, has announced that it will delist Monero (XMR) from its platform in Ireland and Belgium starting in June. XMR is a privacy-focused altcoin that launched in 2014 and will be automatically converted into Bitcoin (BTC) after June 10th. This move follows Binance's delisting of XMR earlier this year, which caused the digital asset to plummet but has since recovered and is currently trading at $134.

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced on Wednesday that it has launched a custody service for institutional investors through its platform Kraken Institutional. This new custody service, called Kraken Custody, will provide institutions with digital asset custody services and create deposit accounts. Kraken Custody will also allow institutions to store, manage, and transfer funds in a single interface, and will be protected by Kraken's internal security protocols.

The cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has announced the launch of institutional-grade service "Kraken Institutional". This is a comprehensive cryptocurrency solution that only provides relevant services for institutions to participate in digital asset categories, bringing together Kraken's existing products and services, and focusing on cryptocurrency trading, staking, and custody.

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has filed a motion with the court requesting the dismissal of the lawsuit brought against it by the SEC. The SEC's complaint does not allege any fraud or consumer harm, but rather asserts that Kraken operates as an unlicensed securities exchange, broker, dealer, and clearing agency because cryptocurrencies are considered "investment contracts." Even if all of the SEC's allegations are true, its argument still has legal deficiencies. Kraken emphasizes that the SEC has never alleged the existence of any "contracts" between buyers on Kraken and token issuers, so it cannot constitute an "investment contract." According to the law, the assets mentioned in the SEC complaint are not investment contracts. For eighty years, the US Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (where this case was filed) have consistently required the SEC to identify the contract when confirming the existence of an investment contract. Kraken further requests that the court dismiss the SEC's lawsuit because there are no contracts and no investment contracts. According to the famous Howey decision by the US Supreme Court, an investment contract must meet the following criteria: 1) investment of funds; 2) common enterprise; 3) expectation of profits through the efforts of others. The SEC has failed to prove any of these conditions in its allegations against Kraken. Kraken calls on the court to dismiss the case and return legislative power to Congress, upholding what it believes is right for its customers and the innovation community.

Kraken has requested its UK users to verify their self-hosted wallets. Based on recent posts, Kraken has started implementing this verification process, citing "UK regulations".

Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange, has obtained a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) registration from the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) as part of its expansion into Europe. This license allows Kraken to offer its top products to residents of the Netherlands. The Managing Director of Europe for Kraken, Brian Gahan, sees this as an opportunity to introduce their services to both retail and institutional investors in the Netherlands and across Europe. Kraken has been eyeing the Dutch market for some time and even considered acquiring Netherlands-based cryptocurrency exchange Coin Meester B.V. to fortify its position in the market. Kraken holds licenses from Ireland, Spain, and Italy and is pursuing licenses and registration in other European states.

The cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced that it will undergo a long-term maintenance at 0:00 Beijing time. During the maintenance period, Kraken services will be unavailable, including the website, application, and Kraken support center.

According to Whale Alert monitoring, at around 12:41 pm Beijing time today, 774 BTC were transferred from Kraken to an unknown wallet, worth approximately $34 million.

On December 5th, according to an official announcement, Kraken now supports deposits and withdrawals of USDC on the Optimism network.Kraken currently supports two versions of USDC: USDC.e and Optimism native USDC.