Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has rolled out Kraken Pay, a new crypto payment service that enables customers to send money from their Kraken account.
The company is aiming to accelerate the crypto-to-fiat, and vice-versa, transaction time by allowing customers to send money in their preferred cryptocurrency or fiat currency anywhere in the world.
Allowing users to send more than 300 crypto and digital assets to a myriad of countries, Kraken is seeking to simplify the crypto payment process to increase adoption and utilise the benefits of the speed of person-to-person transactions.
Kraken will help facilitate transactions via its conversion and exchange capabilities. For example, if a sending user only has Bitcoin and the receiver only wants to be paid in Swiss Francs, the crypto company will manage both the asset conversion and settlement transfer in one step.
The process involves the use of texting using a paylink, a secure URL that can be sent via a messaging service as the recipient only needs to click on the paylink to accept and confirm the payment.
For recipients that do not have a Kraken account to facilitate a payment, the sender can still transfer the money to them via a paylink. Recipients will need to create a Kraken account after accepting the paylink to receive the funds.
Kraken Pay, already launched, will also enable payments to be sent to family members and friends via social media.
This service will involve the use of @Kraktag, a prompt that identifies the Kraken Pay user through a secure and unique method. It can be used to send and receive payments, for crypto or fiat currencies.
Friends and family members can enter the designated @Kraktag to send payments without manually entering full bank details. Each @Kraktag is unique to the user and be customisable to help the receiver better identify the sender.