Kraken – review and guide 2023

Kraken is an American cryptocurrency exchange that focuses on the European market. It is the largest European exchange, which is still gaining in popularity. Kraken review will include several points in which we will go through the services offered and guide in simple steps will show you how to use this exchange

For clarity, we will divide the whole article into several points:

1. Basic information
2. Kraken review
3. Currencies and payment methods
4. Fees
5. Kraken vs other cryptocurrency exchanges
6. Kraken guide
7. Conclusion

1. Basic information

• Name: Kraken
• Fiat currencies: EUR, USD, CAD, GBP, CHF, JPY and AUD
• Cryptocurrencies: 138
• Verification: Several levels
• Fees: 0.06% – 0.26%, depending on the traded volume
• Customer support: Slightly below average
• Trust in the company: High
• Operator: Payward, Inc
• Company headquarters: San Francisco, California, USA
• Establishment of the company: 2011
• Language: English, Russian, French, Spanish and more
• Website: https://www.kraken.com/

2. Kraken review

Kraken founded Jesse Powell in 2011 as one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. Thanks to low fees, it quickly gained popularity, which made it the most trusted exchange in the world. Its serious services made a exchange in charge of settling court orders after the collapse of Mt. Gox. Kraken regularly conducts approved third-party audits to boast the greatest security in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Kraken operates in the European Union, most of the United States and Canada. On its advanced and user-friendly platform offers classic spot trading, margin and special OTC trading for those who want to trade over USD 100,000. Of interest is the “dark pool”, where traders see only their own orders. No one can use the commands for analysis.

3. Currencies and payment methods

The exchange accept a number of fiat currencies. These include EUR, USD, CAD, GBP, CHF, JPY and AUD. The latter can only be used in Australia. In the EU are used SEPA transfers, which come to trading account from 1 to 5 working days. The usual waiting time is 24 – 32 hours.

Cryptocurrencies are free of charge, but in some cases there is a minimum fee for opening a wallet, which is special for the cryptocurrency exchange. All supported cryptocurrencies can be found HERE. Depositing FIAT via SEPA transfer is free.

4. Kraken fees

Kraken reduced fees to an absolute minimum. Instead, he monetized some standard services, which we are not used to from competing exchanges such as Binance or Bitfinex. However, if you know what you want from the platform, it won’t bother you at all. In addition, these are usually small amounts that you practically do not register at all.

Regarding trades, it is worth mentioning that Kraken rewards you for trading with them regularly. Your fees are calculated according to the volume you have traded in the last 30 days. The model is a classic maker-taker and you will save on the trade of cryptocurrencies. Kraken increases fees if you use an invisible order book (Dark pool).

Maker (whoever creates the order), the following applies:

• Spot charges are from 0.26% to 0.06%
• Stablecoin fees are from 0.2% to 0%
• Dark pool fees are from 0.36% to 0.2%

All withdrawals incur a fee with Kraken. As the sample table below illustrates, the withdrawal fees at Kraken aren’t the lowest compared with other exchanges, but they aren’t costly either. Also, the cost depends on the cryptocurrency being withdrawn.

The withdrawal fees and minimums for all cryptocurrencies on Kraken can be found here.

Overview of all Kraken’s withdrawal fees of fiat can be found here.

5. Kraken vs other cryptocurrency exchanges

When looking at some other options, we will discover a number of similar characteristics. For example, with CoinbasePRO, a sister company of Coinbase. Both services have relatively the same fee structure, accept SEPA transferss and offer more or less the same services.

Kraken excels in having a much larger supply of cryptocurrencies. It is therefore more suitable for traders or occasional short-term investors. On the other hand, Coinbase support is a bit better and answers questions faster.

Another competitor is Binance. The largest exchange in the world has many advantages over the Kraken, however, in times of large bull runs it regularly falls and has problems with connection. Those who like to save a few gray hair, therefore, prefer to choose the Kraken exchange. It has a smaller trafic and the traded volume is still more than sufficient. It offers the same leverage for margin trading.

Kraken guide

Creating an account

1, First you will need to create an account. Fill in your email address, username and password here. Remember that you should protect your account with the strongest possible password. You will also select the coountry in which you are located.

2, Then read the terms of use of the service and confirm them. Then nothing prevents you from pressing “CREATE ACCOUNT”.

3, You will find a message in your email with the code you enter in the account activation screen. If you have closed the registration tab, the activation link is also in the e-mail. Confirm the password.

4, Log in to the platform. Click on your username in the upper right corner. Now you need to go through at least a basic verification, so open “Get Verified“.

5, On the next page, select one of the verification levels and fill in the required data or documents.

Deposit

Another goal of our journey to the first spot order is to deposit funds on the exchange. This is an easy matter that does not require further comments, but we will talk about the possibilities and where to find them.

On the main page, click on the “Funding” tab, which can be found on the top bar of the entire interface. You will be taken to the next page.

You can switch between FIAT and cryptocurrencies at the top of the page.

• Cryptocurrencies: To deposit, click on “Deposit” next to the cryptocurrency of your choice and copy the address of the wallet that is linked to your account.
• FIAT: In the top bar, select FIAT, then enter the required information and purchase by payment to the displayed account or, newly, also with the help of a debit card.

Kraken will process the deposit within a few business days, usually after one day. Then we can move on to buying cryptocurrencies.

Trading

In terms of usability, Kraken exchange is best suited for advanced and professional traders. Nevertheless, it works to improve its frontend and helps beginners to easily buy and sell cryptocurrencies, so you can now buy cryptocurrencies directly through its clear panel

Click on “Trade” in the top bar.

Here you can choose from two different ordering options: Simple and Advanced.

The Simple option is by far the easiest way to buy or sell your cryptocurrencies.

The Intermediate option allows you to enter more advanced features and order variables that match your business strategy.

In addition, seasoned traders can go to the Kraken Pro exchange for a more advanced trading view and features by pressing the chart button in the upper right corner. Here you can create a fully customizable panel based on your business techniques, strategies and technical analysis.

The exchange also offers futures trading, where you can trade with leverage up to 50x. Futures trading is only available to verified users outside the US. Perpetual futures are available for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin and USD.

Users can use different types of orders to manage risks, such as limit orders, advanced orders with predefined triggers, leverage positions, margin trading. Kraken Futures also offers a demo account.

Kraken earn

Staking

Kraken user’s have the additional benefit of being able to stake their favorite coins on the platform to earn rewards. Staking allows investors to maximize holdings in digital assets within a Kraken wallet and earn compounding rewards to gradually increase the portfolio.

Staking fees for individual coins vary between 0.25% and 23% per year. To get rewards, it’s as easy as buying a backed asset and saving it in a Kraken wallet. There are currently no stake or unstake fees.

Staking ETH allows the staker to act as a validator on the proof-of-stake Beacon Chain of Ethereum blockchain, supporting the upgrade to Ethereum 2.0. The staked ETH cannot be canceled or transferred in the Ethereum network for an unknown period. This means that clients should only stack ETHs that they plan to hold for a long time.

Parachains

Your Kraken account must be verified at an intermediate level in order to participate in parachain auctions. Parachain slot auctions allow the community to decide which projects to add to the Polkadot and Kusama networks.

In the auction, bidders vote for the project they want to succeed by locking their KSM in a project on the Kusama network or DOT on Poladot. Projects with the largest number of locked tokens on their behalf will win a parachain slot for up to 48 weeks. Once the blocking period has expired, holders will also receive their tokens and rewards.

7. Conclusion

Kraken is a solid and fully trustworthy. There is not the slightest reason to worry about anything when using the Kraken. It offers a sufficient number of pairs, SEPA transfers and some advanced investment tools. It is thus an ideal choice for those who are looking for a friendly exchange. The only disadvantage is the slow customer support, which in some situations can be fully represented by a robust system of instructions and educational articles.

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