Kraken futures limit orders can fill after cancellation due to Maker Protection hold timing

On October 8, 2026, Kraken completed Phase 2 of its Maker Protection expansion by adding 61 perpetual contracts. Under this system, non-post-only limit orders in covered futures markets undergo a 20-millisecond hold. If canceled during this window, orders return a successful cancellation acknowledgment but convert to immediate-or-cancel placements that can still execute at their original release time. Consequently, automated trading bots must reconcile separate cancellation acknowledgments and execution outcomes.

Post-cancellation execution of held limit orders

• ▪Canceling a held limit order during the Maker Protection hold window returns a successful status of 'cancelled' while converting the placement to immediate-or-cancel.
• ▪A canceled held limit order retains its original release time when converted to immediate-or-cancel and can still execute at that release time on Kraken.
• ▪Automated trading bots on Kraken futures must reconcile later fill responses after receiving a successful cancellation acknowledgment for a held limit order.
• ▪When a converted held limit order cannot trade at its release time, Kraken discards any unfilled amount and reports the REST v3 response 'iocWouldNotExecute'.

Maker Protection coverage and API settings

• ▪Kraken specifies each futures market's hold window via the 'makerProtectionMillis' field in its instruments API feed, where zero or missing values indicate no delay.
• ▪Standalone post-only order placements and cancel requests bypass the Maker Protection hold on Kraken futures markets.
• ▪Kraken excludes its ten most liquid linear perpetual markets and spot trading from Maker Protection coverage.
• ▪Kraken completed Phase 2 of its Maker Protection expansion on October 8, 2026, adding 61 additional perpetual contracts.
• ▪Kraken applies an initial 20-millisecond Maker Protection hold to liquidity-taking orders on selected futures markets to give resting orders time to react.

Debatable claims

• ▪Crypto exchanges must guarantee that confirmed order cancellations prevent subsequent fills
• ▪Kraken's Maker Protection hold unfairly privileges market makers over liquidity takers
• ▪Kraken bears responsibility for trader losses caused by executions after cancellation confirmations