Kraken Review 2021

Kraken has extremely high fees for instant purchases and SWIFT withdrawals. However, non-instant trading fees are low, and there are no deposit fees.

How we ranked fees

We ranked Binance fee levels as low, average or high based on how they compare to those of all reviewed crypto service exchanges.

First, let's go over some basic terms related to crypto service fees. Just as with brokers, what you need to keep an eye on are trading fees and non-trading fees.

• Trading fees occur when you trade. These are mostly commissions, but some exchanges may also charge spreads (the difference between the bid and ask price).

• Non-trading fees include charges not directly related to trading, like deposit and withdrawal fees, inactivity fees, conversion fees and bank transfer fees, among others.

In this review, we used two different calculation methods to represent the exchange’s fee structure in a comprehensive number. This means that we replicated the two most popular 'buy' scenarios for cryptocurrencies, as suggested by our clients. In this review, we calculate the

• fees of an instant purchase

• fees of a non-instant purchase

Instant purchase means a model scenario where we bought a coin straight, for example with a credit card or other instant deposit. A non-instant purchase means a model scenario where we first deposit in a fiat currency (USD, EUR, etc.) then convert the deposit into a coin.

For both scenarios, we calculated with a $2,000 trade value, assuming 50,000 BTC/USDT as the market price, which means trading 0.04 BTC per transaction.

Kraken trading fees

Kraken trading fees are mixed. Like at most exchanges, the fee you pay depends on your traded volume. Kraken does not have "discounts" like using their own coin while trading, or special account types that come with preferential fees.

The standard trading fee of crypto assets on Kraken is 0.9% for stablecoins and 1.5% for any other crypto or FX pairs. This is called the "Kraken fee". Apart from the "Kraken fee", additional fees apply, depending on the type of transaction.

Kraken fees for instant purchases

Kraken has the highest instant fee among reviewed competitors. This is due to the fact that on top of the 0.9%/1.5% Kraken fee, a 3.75% + €0.25 fee is charged for credit/debit card payments.

Kraken fees for non-instant transactions

Kraken has low trading fees for non-instant purchases, only slightly above those charged by Binance.

Krraken non-trading fees

Kraken does not charge an inactivity fee or any account management fees. There are no deposit fees, and withdrawal fees only apply for certain withdrawal methods.

Kraken deposit fees and options

Kraken charges no deposit fees. SWIFT, Wire, SEPA transfers, and both BTC and ETH deposits are available. However, a credit/debit card deposit is only available for Canadians and for those who have qualified for an 'Intermediate' account level. To reach this, users must properly fill in their data and verify them with documents. It is quite common among crypto service providers that you have to provide additional personal data to unlock certain features.

Kraken withdrawal fees and options

Kraken charges fees for certain withdrawal methods (see table below).

Please keep in mind that withdrawal may take up to 5 business day, depending on the chosen method.

Kraken's services are available for most residents globally, with the option for a business account as well. However, the minimum withdrawal is high, and withdrawal is not free.

Kraken is available for almost all residents around the world, with a handful of exceptions:

Minimum deposit amount

Kraken's minimum deposit is $0; this is ideal for those who want to invest smaller amounts only.

Account types

Kraken provides only one type of account for retail investors. This is fairly common among crypto exchanges - you can only open one type of account, and if you want to unlock additional features, you either have to subscribe or pay more in fees.

Within the account, you can opt for different trading platforms, such as the regular web trading platform or Kraken Pro. However, this doesn't mean that there is a 'Pro' account, as fee structures are the same. Fees depend on the traded volume, your chosen asset (stablecoin, altcoin, FX, etc) and whether you use instant purchases or not; but not on which platform you use.

In addition to the basic retail account, you can open a business account as well.

While there's only one type of retail account at Kraken, it comes with various service levels. If you add more personal info or upload additional veryfing documents, you'll get access to extra features like the possibility to deposit with a credit card. Make sure to check what services you can unlock after various sign-up levels.

How to open an account

Opening an account at Kraken is fairly easy and fully digital. Verification only takes a few minutes. To access Kraken's 'Pro' view, simply go to trade.kraken.com

What are the steps for account opening?

1. Go to kraken.com
2. Click the Sign-Up button
3. Add basic info, like your email address, username, password, country of residence
4. Follow the instructions to upload a proof of ID (personal ID, driver's license, passport) and a proof of address (such as a utility bill)
5. You're done! Verification will take less than 15 minutes.

Deposit and withdrawal

Deposit fees and options

You can deposit fiat currencies and digital currencies to your account. Kraken offers many payment options to send your money to the exchange. The simplest would be to use your credit card or debit card, but this is not available at Kraken as a default option, and is in any case usually the most costly deposit method.

Unlike at other exchanges, the costs of a deposit at Kraken are tied to the method of deposit, not whether it's a fiat currency or a digital currency. Having said that, Kraken charges no deposit fees for the majority of the available deposit options (e.g. SWIFT, Wire, SEN), with only a very few deposit scenarios involving a fee.

Withdrawal fees and options

You can initiate withdrawals from your Kraken account in fiat currencies and digital currencies as well. Kraken offers several options for both. The cost of withdrawal depends on the currency you want to transfer and the method you use.

For cash withdrawals, the cost of withdrawal and the minimum amount would depend on

• the chosen fiat currency (USD, EUR, CAD, AUD, GBP, CHF, JPY)
• the chosen method (SEPA, Instant SEPA, Swift, FedWire, Bank Transfer, Osko, FPS, CHAPS, SIC)

For example, you can initiate an international USD withdrawal through SWIFT via many different intermediaries:

• SWIFT (Signature Bank) costs $4, with a minimum withdrawal amount of $100
• SWIFT (Etana Custody) costs $35, with a minimum of $150
• SWIFT (Silvergate Bank) costs $20, with a minimum of $100

For more info, see the table below, taken from Kraken's site:

Let's see the same options for crypto withdrawals:

Available fiat currencies

Kraken accepts 7 fiat currencies, listed in the table below.

Kraken has multiple trading platforms, including a 'Pro' one with great charting. Nice extras include multiple order types and an order book. However, the mobile app is a bit too basic.

Kraken has many trading platforms where you can buy and sell digital currencies. There is a simple one for beginners, designed to convert fiat to crypto or one crypto to another on the spot market quickly and easily. There are advanced platforms as well, serving the needs of more experienced crypto traders. There is also a dedicated page for futures trading, Kraken Futures.

Kraken's trading platforms are available from your desktop via your browser or as a standalone application.

For mobile, there is a native app for both iOS and Android, which makes it easy to buy and sell crypto assets directly from your mobile device.

Web Platform

Look and feel 

Kraken's default web investment platform is user-friendly and easy to use. All the important functions are displayed in a well-organized manner.

The platform has all the necessary features, including a basic trade panel, a crypto price page, deposit options, your trading history, support links and account settings.

If you need more tools and functionalities, you can try the Kraken Pro platform, which also features a great charting tool, supporting terminal-like trading.

Login and security

For first-time logins, you must use two-factor authentication. The platform sends you an email with a code each time you log in from a new device.

While this represents an adequate level of account protection, we believe that a message-based authentication system upon each and every login attempt would be even safer.

Placing trades

Both the basic platform and the Pro platform have the same order types available, which are the following:

• Market
• Limit
• Settle Position
• Stop Loss
• Take Profit
• Stop Loss Limit
• Take Profit Limit

Charting tools

Kraken has 30 different charting tools available, including some well-known ones like RSI, MACD, Volume and Linear Regression, among others.

Mobile Investment Platform

Kraken is available on both iOS and Android. In this review, we tested Kraken on iOS.

Look and feel

Kraken's mobile platform is much more minimalistic, with fewer features available. There are no real charting tools or any special order types. Its purpose is to simply send orders to the exchange.

Login and security

As on the web platforms, a first-time login requires two-step email authentication. Afterwads, you can use features such as fingerprint authentication to make subsequent logins more secure.

Placing trades

Unlike on the web platform, there are no order types available on mobile (besides simple market orders).

Charting tools

Sadly, charting tools are not available on the Kraken mobile app.

Kraken has 24/7 support via multiple channels including a great ticketing system; though live chat is sometimes replaced by a subpar virtual assistant. Also, Kraken has no forum presence.

You can contact Kraken 24/7 via:

• Live chat (or virtual assistant)
• Ticketing (email system)

Kraken offers multiple channels to interact with them. The ticketing system is automated - when you type in your issue or query, it tries to list all the relevant FAQ/Support topics based on your inputs, which is really neat.

Submitting a ticket is fairly easy, and turnaround is quick; we got an answer to our question within minutes, which was quite unexpected.

There's also a round-the-clock live chat, where we received prompts replies on most occasions. A few times during our test though (typically outside of working hours), live chat was replaced by a relatively useless Virtual Assistant, which failed to direct us to the relevant support pages. If this ever happens, try typing "I want to speak to a real person" for a chance to get in touch with a live operator.

Some crypto exchanges can also be contacted via a forum (either their own forum, or a subreddit or equivalent). Sadly, that's not the case with Kraken, which does not have any real forum presence. This is definitely an area for improvement for Kraken, as forums in the crypto world are an essential place to discuss technical and trading issues.

Kraken has a solid selection of key cryptocurrencies, though still not nearly as big as some market leaders. It also offers derivative and margin trading, but options are not available.

Kraken has a great selection of the most popular coins, including BTC, Dogecoin, Ethereum, BTC Cash and Sushi, among others.

Derivatives, options and futures on coins

Kraken has a separate trading platform to trade futures on coins. Head to futures.kraken.com to check out this feature. The platform even has a demo account. You can trade futures for the following currencies: XBT, ETH, LTC, BCH and XRP.

Margin trading / leveraged trading available

On trade.kraken.com (Kraken's advanced platform) you can also trade using margin. Kraken provides 5x leverage maximum, with a maximum margin level of $500,000. Margin trading is not available for all cryptos, however; only for those listed in the table below.

Kraken is one of the longest-running crypto exchanges out there. However, it is one of the smaller exchanges too, with low trading volumes.

Is Kraken regulated?

Before we dive deeper into this question, please take a moment to read our disclaimer.

Cryptocurrency exchanges do not qualify for deposit insurance programs, as they are not savings or financial institutions. Therefore no, this service is not regulated in the same sense as broker services are. Still, there are a few signposts that may help you judge the safety of crypto exchanges. Among others, it's worth checking whether the service:

• is listed on an exchange
• has a long track record
• has significant volumes traded on its platforms
• has a big client base and workforce
• vows to guarantee FDIC/SIPC insurance on deposits

Kraken is not exchange-listed, but it does have a long track record. It has been operating since 2011, making it the service provider with the longest track record when compared with market leaders Coinbase (2012) and Binance (2017).

For more details on the company's fundamentals, see the table below.

Background

Kraken was founded in 2011. It is one of the oldest-running crypto exchanges. However, when it comes to all other fundamentals, especially those related to the company's size, it still lags behind its biggest competitors.

Is Kraken secure and safe?

Kraken's trading platforms use two-factor authentication for first-time logins to make your account more secure. Regarding safety, you should be aware that in most cases, crypto exchanges face less stringent regulations than brokers. Investor protection schemes like SIPC in the US or FSCS in the UK are not available for investors of cryptocurrency exchanges.

Kraken provides webinars and a great blog for newcomers, and a demo account for futures trading. However, unlike its competitors, it lacks quality texts and educational videos.

At Kraken, you have access to the following educational tools:

• An education section on blog.kraken.com
• Kraken's webinars on Youtube
• Futures demo account

Sadly, Kraken's written educational materials aren't the best. You can find some quality articles on the blog, but they are rarely updated.

There's also a separate YouTube channel with lengthy webinars on topics such as margin or hedging. Videos also include interviews and market insights.

On the plus side, Kraken has a unique take on education, as it has a demo account for futures trading. We think that demo accounts are the best way to learn how to trade on a platform. It would be great if there was a demo account for Kraken's spot platforms as well.

Kraken's greatest extra feature is its futures trading platform. You can also trade on margin and take part in staking. Sadly, no crypto card is available.

Futures trading

Kraken has a separate trading platform for futures trading called Kraken Futures. It is common among crypto exchanges to have such a dedicated place to trade cryptocurrency futures.

Staking

At Kraken, you can stake coins and fiat currencies as well, allowing you to earn staking rewards on your holdings. However, staked assets are not covered by insurance against losses and are not eligible for Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) or Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) protections.

Kraken is also taking various technical measures to strengthen the security of your account. You can read more about this on Kraken's security page.

Unlike its biggest competitors, though, Kraken does not offer a crypto card. Crypto cards are basically debit cards that you can use to directly spend your crypto.

Kraken is a relatively small cryptocurrency exchange based in the US. It is not listed on any stock exchange, and while its track record is similar to top players such as Coinbase, Kraken is much much smaller.

The company/exchange itself has 175 employees, a client base of 6 million users and a quarterly trade volume of $1.83 billion. These numbers are dwarfed by those of Coinbase and Binance, the two market-leading exchanges reviewed by BrokerChooser.

Kraken has low non-instant buy fees, an advanced trading platform and a solid product selection.

However, it has extremely high instant buy fees, a poor selection of educational materials, as well as restrictive and often expensive withdrawal options.

Feel free to try Kraken, but be very careful, as crypto exchanges are not overseen by financial regulators.

If you come across anything that you think would be nice to include in this review, let us know at [email protected].

Disclaimer: Neither BrokerChooser nor any of its partners accept any responsibility, duty of care or other liability however arising to You or any other third party in relation to this material provided however that nothing in this disclaimer excludes or restricts any liability or duty which BrokerChooser may have under applicable law or regulation which is not capable of being so excluded.

This material and any information contained herein is provided to You for information purposes only. BrokerChooser is not making any recommendation or soliciting any action based on the information contained herein or making any offer, solicitation or recommendation to invest in a particular investment or undertake any course of action.

This information is furnished to You with the express understanding that it does not constitute investment or any other advice and You will determine, by seeking your own independent advice, the economic risks and merits as well as the legal, tax and accounting consequences of taking any course of action, adopting any investment strategy and/or investing in any asset. Furthermore, BrokerChooser does not provide tax, accounting or legal advice either, hence if You require advice in relation to such matters, You should consult your respective tax, accounting or legal advisers.

Recent performance of several crypto currencies might make it tempting to start trading digital currencies. However, You should be aware that these assets are extremely risky, they tend to be much more volatile than more traditional investments such as stocks, bonds or fiat currencies etc., hence it is of utmost importance that You seek your own independent advice with respect to the economic risks and merits as well as the legal, tax and accounting consequences of taking any course of action, adopting any investment strategy and/or investing in any crypto currency, crypto asset and/or crypto commodity.

You should also be aware that in most cases, crypto exchanges face less stringent regulations than brokers and other regulated financial intermediaries; and that investor protection schemes such as schemes of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation in the United States or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in the United Kingdom are not available for investors using crypto exchanges.

 

Please note that this material and all the information contained herein are derived using various proprietary and non-proprietary sources deemed by BrokerChooser to be reliable. It is not necessarily comprehensive and its accuracy cannot be assured. In addition, the information and analysis contained in this material are based on professional judgement and may vary from conclusions or analysis provided by other qualified professionals asked to perform similar analysis. Moreover, this material and the information contained herein are subject to modification, change or supplement without prior notice to You.