Kraken Review Pros, Cons, Features & More

I like the trading environment at Kraken for its deep liquidity, including dark pools, API trading, OTC trading desk, and NFT Marketplace. The asset selection is acceptable and covers 200+ assets, while beginners get high-quality educational content. I also appreciate the 24/7 customer support, which includes phone support, and rate the security among the best in the industry. An account with Kraken can be funded using a variety of payment options. Kraken Pro offers a fully customizable trading interface, allowing users to re-arrange the home screen.

Kraken Pro Pricing

This app is the best for beginners and has pretty simple procedures for buying, selling, onboarding, and selling currencies. Though some users say the interface is overwhelming for beginners but after getting familiar, Kraken is nothing but a sea of opportunities for crypto users. There’s a dedicated streamlined interface for viewing and managing all the details.

A distinct feature amongst different cryptocurrency exchanges is the services they offer. In contrast, others have morphed into diverse service providers to cater to the growing demand for complementary services, including staking, loans, custody, among others. In this guide, we are focusing on Kraken, one of the oldest cryptocurrency trading platforms. You will learn some of the features and services the exchange offers, the cost of using the platform, the security measures it takes to protect its systems, and its pros and cons.

• This means you will be required to provide personal information and verify your identity when registering an account.
• Users on the platform can purchase digital currencies on Kraken using a debit card, which will incur a 3.75% + €0.25 transaction fee.
• The wallet supports multi-chains (including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Solana, and Polygon), DeFi Deposits, and large NFT collections.
• Kraken is one of the oldest Bitcoin exchanges and supports 300+ different coins to buy, sell, and trade with competitive exchange fees.
• We collect data directly from providers through detailed questionnaires, and conduct first-hand testing and observation through provider demonstrations.

Minimum Deposit

• Stablecoins, pegged tokens, and FX pairs have maker/taker fees ranging from 0.00% to 0.20%.
• Kraken is a good choice for new and existing cryptocurrency investors and traders looking for low trading fees and access to a wide array of coins.
• With all the crypto exchanges that are out there – Kraken stands out as a great choice, especially for anyone who lives in the USA.
• You don’t have to worry, however, since these are just first-time login procedures.
• Kraken Pro is more polished than the basic web-based trading interface.
• Our goal is to provide an objective assessment of Kraken’s strengths and weaknesses so readers can determine if it is the right exchange to suit their cryptocurrency trading and investing needs.

We had a minor issue changing an account setting (mostly due to user error) and sent in a support ticket. Kraken staff responded and resolved the problem in about 20 minutes. Using this system, you’re able to buy crypto directly using your bank account balance. The SEC filed charges against Kraken, claiming the company did not register its crypto staking-as-a-service program and sold unregistered securities. In February 2023, Kraken paid a $30 million fee to settle the lawsuit. Kraken’s Buy Crypto tool allows investors to buy, sell, or convert certain crypto and cash combinations.

Kraken Review: Is it the BEST Exchange??

You will even have the chance to earn upto 30% APY on assets like ETH, DOT, and SOL. Additionally, if you’re worried about the security measures, Kraken gives you absolute peace of mind with that. However, advancing the Know Your Customer (KYC) policy might help this platform cater to this issue. Also, keep in mind Kraken has liquidity for smaller altcoins, and less popular coins can be low. This often leads to price slippage but if Kraken comes up with a better marketing mechanism, this problem definitely has the solution. If you live in the U.S. and maximum supported currencies is what you’re after, you’re probably better off choosing another exchange like Coinbase.

Crypto-to-crypto trading pairs: 5 out of 5 stars

Beginners will do best with the main Kraken platform, while advanced and expert crypto enthusiasts may prefer Kraken Pro and the advanced margin and futures features. The combination of platforms and services makes it likely that Kraken can handle your cryptocurrency needs. While the guides are fairly basic, they’re better than nothing, which is what most of the other exchanges offer. Kraken’s trading fees come in near the low end of the industry, with some fees starting at just 0.25 percent. Costs for active traders decline from there and can even be eliminated entirely if you’re trading really large amounts based on your average 30-day trading volume.

Kevin started in the cryptocurrency space in 2016 and began investing in Bitcoin before exclusively trading digital currencies on various brokers, exchanges and trading platforms. He started Hedge With Crypto to publish informative guides about Bitcoin and share his experiences with using a variety of crypto exchanges around the world. Kraken Pro uses a taker and maker system with trading fees of 0.16% and 0.26%, respectively.

I recommend traders pass the verification process to upgrade to Pro to unlock all features. Express has a lifetime deposit maximum of $9,000 but lacks core features like cryptocurrency deposits, staking, margin trading, access to the OTC desk, and dark pool trading. The Kraken mobile app offers an intuitive experience for beginners, and the Kraken Pro app offers a better trading experience for advanced traders. Both apps make it easy to trade, stake, and manage a user’s cryptocurrency and offer the same features as the Kraken web version. This crypto trading exchange mostly attracts experienced-level traders. It has many trading options including margin trading, futures, staking, and derivatives trading.

Despite this factor, Kraken’s trading kraken trading review fees are considered pretty high for entry-level traders. Kraken has never been hacked and is considered a reliable crypto exchange. However, it’s probably still best to move your crypto onto an off-site wallet. Kraken provides various levels of protection for its users. There is also a Masterkey (Yubikey recommended) level of security. Yes, the basic Kraken trading platform 0.90% for stablecoins and 1.49% on all other crypto pairs.