Kraken

Kraken Review – Introduction

Kraken is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, offering a highly reliable and safe trading platform. Established all the way back in 2011, Kraken has cemented its reputation as one of the premier crypto exchanges, catering to both novice and experienced traders.

Our Kraken review will explain more about Kraken’s features, deposit and withdraw methods, fees, safety, and other factors.

Who is Kraken For?

Kraken is equally suitable for both beginners and experienced investors. Exchange’s user-friendly interface and intuitive trading tools contribute to a seamless trading experience. Whether engaging in spot trading, margin trading, or utilizing advanced order types, users can navigate the platform with ease. The exchange also offers futures trading, allowing users to speculate on cryptocurrency price movements with added leverage.

Pros and Cons

Is Kraken good for beginner investors?

Wide range of deposit methods, easy to use interface, fiat withdrawals, convenient staking with good returns, and a secure web3 wallet all make Kraken a solid choice for customers looking to buy Bitcoin on a regulated and safe exchange.

Downsides for beginner investors include lack of quick convert, high Spot trading fees, no copytrading, and no peer-to-peer marketplace.

Is Kraken good for crypto trading?

Spot, Margin and Futures markets are available for trading crypto. Fees are high on Spot market, but not as excessive as we’ve seen on some of the biggest competitors such as Coinbase. Minimum (maker) Spot fee is 0.25%, with maximum fee (taker) set to 0.25% per transaction.

Futures fees are industry average, which still makes Kraken suitable for day trading. Futures trading fee starts at 0.02%, up to 0.05%. Trading fee discounts start at $100,000 volume in a 30-day period, but sadly there are no native token or referral fee discounts available on this exchange.

When it comes to volume and liquidity, Kraken customers have little to worry about. Unless you’re market-opening 6-figure positions, you will not have any issues with slippage or liquidity on most of Kraken’s 350+ altcoins available for trading.

Experienced high-volume traders can look at our Exchanges with Low Fees to find cheapest crypto exchanges. Alternatively, you can also quickly compare fees on all major brokers on our fee comparison page.

Crypto Exchange Fee Comparison

Comparison of trading fees on biggest crypto exchanges. Find taker and maker fees for spot and futures markets, and how to reduce fees further with native tokens and referral codes.Read Now 

Deposits – How to Deposit Fiat to Kraken?

Kraken does not have any deposits through 3rd party gateways, but its variety of direct deposit methods are more than sufficient for most traders. Supported fiat currencies include USD, EUR, CAD, GBP, CHF, and AUD. You can deposit via Visa and Mastercard, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and even PayPal (UK, EEA, Australia). Be careful about the fees, though.

Bank transfer deposits are ideal to use, because the fees are lowest. Both ACH and SEPA deposits have zero fees, making these bank transfers the cheapest deposit methods. Even when Kraken charges bank transfer fees, they are very low and more than acceptable.

Withdrawals – How to Withdraw From Kraken

Kraken only lets you withdraw fiat currencies through bank transfers. Supported currencies for withdrawals include USD, EUR, CAD, GBP, CHF, AUD, and JPY. Our Kraken Fees section above has exact costs per each withdrawal currency. Overall, the withdraw fees are acceptably cheap.

Of course, you can also withdraw crypto assets to other exchanges or self-custody wallets. Most cryptocurrency withdrawals are around $1, depending on individual crypto asset and current network congestion. Most expensive withdrawals will be on Bitcoin or Ethereum mainnets, however using alternate blockchains or Layer 2 networks makes fees cheaper.

Trading – How to Trade Crypto on Kraken?

As mentioned, Kraken will let you trade crypto on Spot, Margin and Futures markets. User interface is excellent and one of the best in the industry. Even for beginners, we highly recommend swapping from regular “Kraken” to “Kraken Pro” trading mode, as it offers more tools and information.

Trading screens are highly customizable, and Kraken will give you all the tools needed for successfully executing trades. Advanced charts, various order types, high volume and excellent liquidity will satisfy even the most demanding crypto traders.

On Spot, you can place limit, market, stop loss, take profit, trailing stop, and iceberg orders. You can use 3x to 5x leverage for Margin trading, depending on asset. On Futures, you can use up to 50x leverage on popular assets, and 10x, 20x or 25x for less popular ones. You can use cross or isolated positions, and the entire trading process is as easy as any other exchange.

Kraken doesn’t have any trading bots or copytrading, two features which are frequently found on biggest competitors. Customers also can’t trade Options market or stocks/indices. Furthermore, crypto loans are not available either for those looking to increase available capital.

Other Top Kraken Features

Mobile app – Users looking to trade crypto on any platform including mobile devices will likely find Kraken’s mobile app very intuitive and simple to use. App will let you easily trade and manage portfolio from anywhere.

Decentralized wallet – Kraken Wallet is a very secure, open source, self-custody wallet. Ensuring your funds are always secure is paramount, and Kraken’s wallet has some of the most robust safety measures in place to provide you with complete peace of mind.

Kraken Pay – unveiled in early 2025, Kraken Pay feature lets everyone send money to friends or family as easy as sending a text message. Kraken Pay has no fees, processes transactions instantly, and even does automatic currency conversion for seamless cross-border payments.

Staking – One of Kraken’s standout features is their lucrative Earn program, providing some of the highest APY (yearly percentage yields) in the industry. Simply holding popular coins can provide you consistent interest, completely free of charge. These crypto assets you can earn interest on include Cardano (ADA), Polkadot (DOT), Cosmos (ATOM), Solana (SOL), Polygon (POL/Matic), and even Ethereum (ETH).

Security & Safety – Is Kraken a Safe Exchange?

Kraken is undoubtedly one of the safest exchanges in the industry. The trading platform has been operating since 2013, and hasn’t had any major security incidents or issues since. It’s worth noting that Kraken is a US-based exchange, located in San Francisco, California. Company CEO is Jesse Powell, a well-known figure in the crypto community.

Regulatory compliance and licenses

• In North America, Kraken has licenses in United States, operating in all states except New York, Washington and Maine. Derivatives trading is restricted to US customers of course, but staking is available to most.
• In addition to USA, Kraken is also licensed in Canada. Margin and derivatives trading isn’t available to Canadian customers.
• In Europe, Kraken is licensed and authorized in Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Netherlands, Spain, and United Kingdom. It also holds a MiFID license across EU for regulated derivatives trading.
• Other regulatory approvals and licenses worldwide include Australia and Bermuda.

Some of the countries and regions may have certain restrictions, which you can find here.

Asset protection

• Customer assets mainly stored in cold storage, with smaller amounts in hot wallets.
• Bug bounty program is in place, ensuring potential bugs or exploits get reported and fixed.
• Proof of Reserves reports are published, confirming all customer deposits are safe.
• External website cer.live scored Kraken’s security with AAA rating, or 90% security score.

Overall, Kraken’s security is top-notch and you can read more about it here.

Customer support

• Kraken’s customer support portal has over 500 articles and guides explaining every aspect of the exchange. If you need tutorials or explanations on how to trade, deposit, verify account, change settings or anything else, you will find it.
• 24/7 customer support is available through live chat in any region, and phone in US, EU and UK. Alternatively, you can also contact Kraken staff through email.

User account security

• For 2-factor authentication (2FA), both hardware security keys and authenticator apps are available.
• Each new devices used to log into your account will require approval via email.
• You can view your active sessions in your profile, allowing you to easily check for unauthorized logins.
• Automatic sign-out of your account is customizable, ensuring your account stays safe in case someone accessed your device.
• Global Settings Lock (GSL) can be enabled as another security layer in case your password or 2FA get compromised. You can also instantly lock your account through the support center in case you notice a suspicious login.
• Adding new withdrawal addresses will require additional email confirmation.

These are just some of the account protection methods used on Kraken, but overall the platform has sufficient security methods in place to prevent any unauthorized logins, phishing scams, hacks, or withdrawals.

Is Kraken safe for buying Bitcoin?

Kraken is one of the safest exchanges for buying cryptocurrency. This is a legitimate exchange operating for more than a decade without any major security incidents. Its corporate structure and executive team are known and transparent. For additional confidence, Kraken is licensed and available in United States, with additional regulatory approvals and licenses in over a dozen countries.

You can rest assured that Kraken and its banking partners are perfectly safe, and you can use the platform confident that your data and assets are properly secured. The platform goes well beyond industry standards to ensure customer privacy and safety.

Final Thoughts – Is Kraken a Good Exchange to Use?

• Kraken is one of the largest and safest exchanges in the industry.
• Deposit fees are cheap, and you can deposit local currency through credit or debit cards, bank transfers, and several digital wallets.
• The trading fees are average to high, depending on your usage.
• Over 350 altcoins are available for buying and trading, sufficient for most investors.

For its profitable staking feature, Kraken is one of the top choices for holding spot bags. This helps long-term investors gain yields on their idle crypto coins without having to trade and risk their portfolio.

Beyond its core functionalities, Kraken provides educational resources, market analysis, and insights to help users make informed trading decisions. Dedication to customer support ensures that users receive timely assistance if needed.

In summary, Kraken’s longevity, commitment to security, diverse asset offerings, and user-friendly interface make it a standout choice for all types of traders.