
#2 Best Overall Exchange in 2021: Kraken
We have rated Kraken as being our #2 Overall cryptocurrency platform.

Overall Rating: 81.0 / 100
Trust: 10/10
Trading: 9.5/10
Derivatives: 10/10
# of Coins: 6.5/10
Fees: 8.75/10
Customer Service: 10/10
Funding Options: 10/10
Recurring Buys: 0/10
Kraken Review
- Kraken is a San Francisco-based crypto exchange founded in July 2011 by Jesse Powell (who still serves as CEO).
- Jesse Powell toured the office of Mt. Gox (the infamous, now-defunct Bitcoin exchange) after their security breach in 2011 was determined to replace it. Because of this experience, Mr. Powell was determined to build the most secure Bitcoin exchange to give legitimacy and confidence in the crypto industry.
- Kraken is known to buy many smaller companies to integrate their technology into their own. This has helped them scale very quickly, add new features, and maintain their secure framework.
- They have received lots of outside funding from legitimate and well-connected sources, namely: Hummingbird Ventures, Bitcoin Opportunity Fund (led by Trace Mayer and Barry Silbert - well known Bitcoin thought leaders), and several others.
Kraken CEO:
Jesse Powell (since 2011)
Kraken Strengths
- Kraken has been around since 2011 so they are well known in the crypto industry. They are among the most secure and reliable crypto exchanges. We gave them a perfect 10/10 Trust Score due to their impressive liquidity, scale, and cybersecurity. One of our favorite aspects of their cybersecurity is their commitment to Penetration Tests and Proof of Funds.
- Kraken is one of the only exchanges that offer derivatives (futures) contracts.
- Traders will love them for many reasons - excellent API coverage, margin trading, and up to 5x leverage trading. Their trader dashboards and ability to slice data are great.
- On-site staking capability for certain coins.
- Kraken has excellent leadership and we appreciate their investment in educational tools on their site and social media platforms.
Kraken Weaknesses
- They have not implemented Bug Bounty, but they have made up for it with other security protocols.
- No automatic recurring buy option.
- Fees are pretty good unless you’re going to make a large withdrawal.
# of Coins:
49
Current Promotions:
No notable promotions to report.
Kraken Fees:
- Low trading and deposit fees, but withdrawal fees can be on the high side for very large withdrawals.
- Trading Fees: 0% - 0.26%
Kraken Withdrawal Fees:
Cryptocurrency | Withdrawal fee | Withdrawal minimum (including fee) |
Algorand | 0.01 ALGO | 1 ALGO |
Aragon | 0.95 ANT | 4 ANT |
Augur | 0.01 REP | 0.05 REP |
Augur v2 | 0.1 REPV2 | 0.03 REPV2 |
Basic Attention Token | 4 BAT | 10 BAT |
Balancer | 0.025 BAL | 0.4 BAL |
Bitcoin | 0.0005 XBT | 0.005 XBT |
Bitcoin Cash | 0.0001 BCH | 0.001 BCH |
Cardano | 0.6 ADA | 2 ADA |
Chainlink | 0.12 LINK | 1.4 LINK |
Compound | 0.01 COMP | 0.025 COMP |
Cosmos | 0.1 ATOM | 1 ATOM |
Curve | 0.25 CRV | 3 CRV |
Dash (normal send) | 0.005 DASH | 0.01 DASH |
Dash (instant send) | 0.01 DASH | 0.05 DASH |
Dai | 2.5 DAI | 5 DAI |
Dogecoin | 2 XDG | 50 XDG |
EOS | 0.05 EOS | 0.5 EOS |
Ether | 0.005 ETH | 0.01 ETH |
Ether Classic | 0.005 ETC | 0.01 ETC |
Filecoin | 0.001 FIL | 0.1 FIL |
Gnosis | 0.005 GNO | 0.01 GNO |
ICON | 0.02 ICX | 0.03 ICX |
Kava | 0.1 KAVA | 1 KAVA |
Keep Network | 10 KEEP | 40 KEEP |
Kusama | 0.005 KSM | 0.015 KSM |
Kyber Network | 1 KNC | 5 KNC |
Lisk | 0.3 LSK | 1 LSK |
Litecoin | 0.001 LTC | 0.01 LTC |
Melon | 0.003 MLN | 0.1 MLN |
Monero | 0.0001 XMR | 0.01 XMR |
Nano | 0.05 NANO | 0.1 NANO |
OmiseGO | 0.7 OMG | 1 OMG |
Orchid | 3 OXT | 10 OXT |
PAX Gold | 0.0025 PAXG + 0.02% to Paxos† | 0.005 PAXG |
Polkadot | 0.03 DOT | 1.03 DOT |
Qtum | 0.01 QTUM | 0.1 QTUM |
Ripple | 0.02 XRP | 25 XRP |
Siacoin | 1 SC | 2 SC |
Stellar Lumens | 0.00002 XLM | 25 XLM |
Storj | 6 STORJ | 10 STORJ |
Synthetix | 0.2 SNX | 2 SNX |
tBTC | 0.00025 TBTC | 0.0008 TBTC |
Tether USD (OMNI) | 5 USDT | 10 USDT |
Tether USD (ERC20) | 2.5 USDT | 5 USDT |
Tezos | 0.2 XTZ | 0.3 XTZ |
Tron | 0.01 TRX | 2 TRX |
Uniswap | 0.6 UNI | 2.2 UNI |
USD Coin | 2.5 USDC | 5 USDC |
Waves | 0.003 WAVES | 0.01 WAVES |
Yearn Finance | 0.00013 YFI | 0.0005 |
Zcash (Transparent) | 0.0001 ZEC | 0.0005 ZEC |
Zcash (Private) | 0.01 ZEC | 0.02 ZEC |
Trading Fee Schedule:
30- Day Volume (USD) | Maker | Taker |
$0 - $50,000 | 0.16% | 0.26% |
$50,001 - $100,000 | 0.14% | 0.24% |
$100,001 - $250,000 | 0.12% | 0.22% |
$250,001 - $500,000 | 0.10% | 0.20% |
$500,001 - $1,000,000 | 0.08% | 0.18% |
$1,000,001 - $2,500,000 | 0.06% | 0.16% |
$2,500,001 - $5,000,000 | 0.04% | 0.14% |
$5,000,001 - $10,000,000 | 0.02% | 0.12% |
$10,000,000+ | 0.00% | 0.10% |
Kraken Trading Features:
- Kraken offers world class API coverage, margin trading, and up to 5x leverage. Their trading platform and dashboards are excellent.
- 214 tradable pairs is impressive and likely more than you’ll ever need.
- Low to average trading fees.
- Depending on what you find to be most valuable, this might be the best exchange for traders.
Kraken HODLing Features:
Kraken does not offer automatic recurring buys - which is our favorite feature for HODLers. If you want to set automatic, recurring buys you should consider Binance.US.
Security - Kraken has our highest Trust and Cybersecurity scores. They were built to replace Mt. Gox after their security breach and have not lost that focus. Security is their founding principle.
We are big fans of auto/recurring buys (Dollar Cost Averaging) and encourage you to utilize this strategy if you don’t want to make a large, one-time purchase, and then move your crypto into a hardware wallet. Check out Binance.US if you want to set up automatic recurring purchases.
DCA:
Analysis and Educational Tools:
Kraken has an excellent and thorough education program found under their ‘Learn’ on their homepage. Kraken’s ‘Crypto 101’, by their CEO Jesse Powell, is a great place to start for beginners. Their YouTube channel is also by far the best out of all the sites we ranked.
Kraken has put a ton of time and effort into education and we can not recommend their education sections enough. They have hired a Bitcoin Evangelist (Pierre Rochard) who is a must-follow on Twitter.
Here's a taste of their YouTube channel:
Mobile App:
The Kraken mobile app is very clean and easy to use. This is one of our favorite mobile apps for buying/trading crypto. Dark mode is a nice touch.
Some of the more advanced trading features are either not available on the app, or are more difficult to navigate than the desktop version.
Kraken Coin List and Tradable Pairs:
# | Coin | Pair |
1 | Bitcoin | XBT/EUR |
2 | Bitcoin | XBT/USD |
3 | XRP | XRP/USD |
4 | XRP | XRP/EUR |
5 | Ethereum | ETH/USD |
6 | Ethereum | ETH/EUR |
7 | Tether | USDT/USD |
8 | Ethereum | ETH/XBT |
9 | Stellar | XLM/USD |
10 | XRP | XRP/XBT |
11 | Tether | USDT/EUR |
12 | Stellar | XLM/EUR |
13 | Chainlink | LINK/USD |
14 | Bitcoin Cash | BCH/USD |
15 | Cardano | ADA/USD |
16 | Cardano | ADA/EUR |
17 | Bitcoin Cash | BCH/EUR |
18 | Litecoin | LTC/USD |
19 | Stellar | XLM/XBT |
20 | Litecoin | LTC/EUR |
21 | Bitcoin | XBT/GBP |
22 | Monero | XMR/XBT |
23 | Chainlink | LINK/EUR |
24 | Bitcoin | XBT/USDT |
25 | Polkadot | DOT/USD |
26 | Tezos | XTZ/USD |
27 | Bitcoin | XBT/CAD |
28 | EOS | EOS/EUR |
29 | EOS | EOS/USD |
30 | Dash | DASH/USD |
31 | Chainlink | LINK/XBT |
32 | Tezos | XTZ/EUR |
33 | Dash | DASH/EUR |
34 | Zcash | ZEC/USD |
35 | Polkadot | DOT/EUR |
36 | USD Coin | USDC/USD |
37 | Monero | XMR/USD |
38 | Monero | XMR/EUR |
39 | Cardano | ADA/XBT |
40 | XRP | XRP/USDT |
41 | Algorand | ALGO/USD |
42 | TRON | TRX/USD |
43 | Ethereum | ETH/USDT |
44 | yearn.finance | YFI/EUR |
45 | Litecoin | LTC/XBT |
46 | USD Coin | USDC/EUR |
47 | yearn.finance | YFI/USD |
48 | Zcash | ZEC/EUR |
49 | Algorand | ALGO/EUR |
50 | Bitcoin Cash | BCH/XBT |
51 | XRP | XRP/GBP |
52 | XRP | XRP/ETH |
53 | Dash | DASH/XBT |
54 | TRON | TRX/EUR |
55 | Basic Attention Token | BAT/USD |
56 | Filecoin | FIL/USD |
57 | Cosmos | ATOM/USD |
58 | Waves | WAVES/EUR |
59 | XRP | XRP/CAD |
60 | OMG Network | OMG/EUR |
61 | OMG Network | OMG/USD |
62 | Waves | WAVES/USD |
63 | Polkadot | DOT/XBT |
64 | Basic Attention Token | BAT/EUR |
65 | EOS | EOS/XBT |
66 | Bitcoin | XBT/CHF |
67 | Tezos | XTZ/XBT |
68 | Cosmos | ATOM/EUR |
69 | Bitcoin | XBT/USDC |
70 | Ethereum | ETH/GBP |
71 | Orchid Protocol | OXT/USD |
72 | USD Coin | USDC/USDT |
73 | Algorand | ALGO/XBT |
74 | Orchid Protocol | OXT/EUR |
75 | yearn.finance | YFI/XBT |
76 | Zcash | ZEC/XBT |
77 | Kusama | KSM/EUR |
78 | Curve DAO Token | CRV/EUR |
79 | Uniswap | UNI/USD |
80 | Qtum | QTUM/USD |
81 | Uniswap | UNI/EUR |
82 | Cosmos | ATOM/XBT |
83 | Nano | NANO/EUR |
84 | Ethereum Classic | ETC/EUR |
85 | Compound | COMP/USD |
86 | Tether | USDT/GBP |
87 | Siacoin | SC/EUR |
88 | Ethereum | ETH/CAD |
89 | Qtum | QTUM/EUR |
90 | TRON | TRX/XBT |
91 | Storj | STORJ/EUR |
92 | Tether | USDT/CAD |
93 | Bitcoin | XBT/AUD |
94 | Kava.io | KAVA/EUR |
95 | Bitcoin Cash | BCH/USDT |
96 | Nano | NANO/USD |
97 | Ethereum Classic | ETC/USD |
98 | Siacoin | SC/USD |
99 | Siacoin | SC/XBT |
100 | Dogecoin | XDG/XBT |
101 | ICON | ICX/EUR |
102 | Melon | MLN/EUR |
103 | Ethereum | ETH/USDC |
104 | Dai | DAI/EUR |
105 | Lisk | LSK/XBT |
106 | Basic Attention Token | BAT/XBT |
107 | Dogecoin | XDG/EUR |
108 | Bitcoin | XBT/DAI |
109 | Filecoin | FIL/EUR |
110 | Ethereum | ETH/CHF |
111 | Melon | MLN/USD |
112 | Kava.io | KAVA/USD |
113 | Dai | DAI/USD |
114 | Ethereum | ETH/DAI |
115 | Compound | COMP/EUR |
116 | Polkadot | DOT/ETH |
117 | Waves | WAVES/XBT |
118 | Curve DAO Token | CRV/USD |
119 | Tether | USDT/JPY |
120 | Kusama | KSM/USD |
121 | OMG Network | OMG/XBT |
122 | PAX Gold | PAXG/EUR |
123 | Nano | NANO/XBT |
124 | Cardano | ADA/ETH |
125 | Dogecoin | XDG/USD |
126 | Synthetix Network Token | SNX/USD |
127 | Augur | REP/EUR |
128 | Lisk | LSK/EUR |
129 | Litecoin | LTC/USDT |
130 | ICON | ICX/USD |
131 | Gnosis | GNO/EUR |
132 | Ethereum Classic | ETC/XBT |
133 | Chainlink | LINK/ETH |
134 | Kusama | KSM/ETH |
135 | Kyber Network | KNC/USD |
136 | Kyber Network | KNC/EUR |
137 | XRP | XRP/JPY |
138 | Polkadot | DOT/USDT |
139 | Nano | NANO/ETH |
140 | Uniswap | UNI/XBT |
141 | Melon | MLN/ETH |
142 | Storj | STORJ/USD |
143 | Kusama | KSM/XBT |
144 | Cardano | ADA/USDT |
145 | PAX Gold | PAXG/USD |
146 | Aragon | ANT/USD |
147 | XRP | XRP/AUD |
148 | Synthetix Network Token | SNX/EUR |
149 | TRON | TRX/ETH |
150 | Litecoin | LTC/ETH |
151 | Melon | MLN/XBT |
152 | Gnosis | GNO/ETH |
153 | Augur | REP/USD |
154 | Chainlink | LINK/USDT |
155 | Tezos | XTZ/ETH |
156 | Bitcoin Cash | BCH/ETH |
157 | Qtum | QTUM/XBT |
158 | ICON | ICX/XBT |
159 | Orchid Protocol | OXT/XBT |
160 | Lisk | LSK/USD |
161 | Bitcoin | XBT/JPY |
162 | OMG Network | OMG/ETH |
163 | Kyber Network | KNC/ETH |
164 | Curve DAO Token | CRV/XBT |
165 | Tether | USDT/CHF |
166 | Kava.io | KAVA/XBT |
167 | Ethereum | ETH/AUD |
168 | Aragon | ANT/EUR |
169 | Filecoin | FIL/XBT |
170 | Litecoin | LTC/GBP |
171 | Tether | USDT/AUD |
172 | EOS | EOS/ETH |
173 | Ethereum Classic | ETC/ETH |
174 | Algorand | ALGO/ETH |
175 | Kyber Network | KNC/XBT |
176 | Cosmos | ATOM/ETH |
177 | Storj | STORJ/XBT |
178 | Gnosis | GNO/USD |
179 | Compound | COMP/XBT |
180 | Dai | DAI/USDT |
181 | PAX Gold | PAXG/XBT |
182 | Balancer | BAL/EUR |
183 | PAX Gold | PAXG/ETH |
184 | Synthetix Network Token | SNX/XBT |
185 | Filecoin | FIL/ETH |
186 | Siacoin | SC/ETH |
187 | Ethereum | ETH/JPY |
188 | EOS | EOS/USDT |
189 | Basic Attention Token | BAT/ETH |
190 | Compound | COMP/ETH |
191 | Bitcoin Cash | BCH/GBP |
192 | Augur | REP/XBT |
193 | Litecoin | LTC/JPY |
194 | Aragon | ANT/XBT |
195 | Orchid Protocol | OXT/ETH |
196 | Balancer | BAL/USD |
197 | Curve DAO Token | CRV/ETH |
198 | Lisk | LSK/ETH |
199 | Augur | REPV2/USD |
200 | Augur | REPV2/EUR |
201 | Synthetix Network Token | SNX/ETH |
202 | Uniswap | UNI/ETH |
203 | yearn.finance | YFI/ETH |
204 | Kava.io | KAVA/ETH |
205 | Aragon | ANT/ETH |
206 | Gnosis | GNO/XBT |
207 | ICON | ICX/ETH |
208 | Augur | REPV2/XBT |
209 | Waves | WAVES/ETH |
210 | Bitcoin Cash | BCH/AUD |
211 | Augur | REP/ETH |
212 | Qtum | QTUM/ETH |
213 | Balancer | BAL/XBT |
214 | Bitcoin Cash | BCH/JPY |
215 | Augur | REPV2/ETH |
216 | Storj | STORJ/ETH |
217 | Balancer | BAL/ETH |
218 | Litecoin | LTC/AUD |