Kraken – Crypto Exchange Review

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#2 Best Overall Exchange in 2021: Kraken

Rating: 81.0 / 100

We have rated Kraken as being our #2 Overall cryptocurrency platform.

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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

OPEN KRAKEN ACCOUNT

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:

CryptocurrencyWithdrawal feeWithdrawal minimum (including fee)
Algorand0.01 ALGO1 ALGO
Aragon0.95 ANT4 ANT
Augur0.01 REP0.05 REP
Augur v20.1 REPV20.03 REPV2
Basic Attention Token4 BAT10 BAT
Balancer0.025 BAL0.4 BAL
Bitcoin0.0005 XBT0.005 XBT
Bitcoin Cash0.0001 BCH0.001 BCH
Cardano0.6 ADA2 ADA
Chainlink0.12 LINK1.4 LINK
Compound0.01 COMP0.025 COMP
Cosmos0.1 ATOM1 ATOM
Curve0.25 CRV3 CRV
Dash (normal send)0.005 DASH0.01 DASH
Dash (instant send)0.01 DASH0.05 DASH
Dai2.5 DAI5 DAI
Dogecoin2 XDG50 XDG
EOS0.05 EOS0.5 EOS
Ether0.005 ETH0.01 ETH
Ether Classic0.005 ETC0.01 ETC
Filecoin0.001 FIL0.1 FIL
Gnosis0.005 GNO0.01 GNO
ICON0.02 ICX0.03 ICX
Kava0.1 KAVA1 KAVA
Keep Network10 KEEP40 KEEP
Kusama0.005 KSM0.015 KSM
Kyber Network1 KNC5 KNC
Lisk0.3 LSK1 LSK
Litecoin0.001 LTC0.01 LTC
Melon0.003 MLN0.1 MLN
Monero0.0001 XMR0.01 XMR
Nano0.05 NANO0.1 NANO
OmiseGO0.7 OMG1 OMG
Orchid3 OXT10 OXT
PAX Gold0.0025 PAXG + 0.02% to Paxos†0.005 PAXG
Polkadot0.03 DOT1.03 DOT
Qtum0.01 QTUM0.1 QTUM
Ripple0.02 XRP25 XRP
Siacoin1 SC2 SC
Stellar Lumens0.00002 XLM25 XLM
Storj6 STORJ10 STORJ
Synthetix0.2 SNX2 SNX
tBTC0.00025 TBTC0.0008 TBTC
Tether USD (OMNI)5 USDT10 USDT
Tether USD (ERC20)2.5 USDT5 USDT
Tezos0.2 XTZ0.3 XTZ
Tron0.01 TRX2 TRX
Uniswap0.6 UNI2.2 UNI
USD Coin2.5 USDC5 USDC
Waves0.003 WAVES0.01 WAVES
Yearn Finance0.00013 YFI0.0005
Zcash (Transparent)0.0001 ZEC0.0005 ZEC
Zcash (Private)0.01 ZEC0.02 ZEC

Trading Fee Schedule:

30- Day Volume (USD)MakerTaker
$0 - $50,0000.16%0.26%
$50,001 - $100,0000.14%0.24%
$100,001 - $250,0000.12%0.22%
$250,001 - $500,0000.10%0.20%
$500,001 - $1,000,0000.08%0.18%
$1,000,001 - $2,500,0000.06%0.16%
$2,500,001 - $5,000,0000.04%0.14%
$5,000,001 - $10,000,0000.02%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:

#CoinPair
1BitcoinXBT/EUR
2BitcoinXBT/USD
3XRPXRP/USD
4XRPXRP/EUR
5EthereumETH/USD
6EthereumETH/EUR
7TetherUSDT/USD
8EthereumETH/XBT
9StellarXLM/USD
10XRPXRP/XBT
11TetherUSDT/EUR
12StellarXLM/EUR
13ChainlinkLINK/USD
14Bitcoin CashBCH/USD
15CardanoADA/USD
16CardanoADA/EUR
17Bitcoin CashBCH/EUR
18LitecoinLTC/USD
19StellarXLM/XBT
20LitecoinLTC/EUR
21BitcoinXBT/GBP
22MoneroXMR/XBT
23ChainlinkLINK/EUR
24BitcoinXBT/USDT
25PolkadotDOT/USD
26TezosXTZ/USD
27BitcoinXBT/CAD
28EOSEOS/EUR
29EOSEOS/USD
30DashDASH/USD
31ChainlinkLINK/XBT
32TezosXTZ/EUR
33DashDASH/EUR
34ZcashZEC/USD
35PolkadotDOT/EUR
36USD CoinUSDC/USD
37MoneroXMR/USD
38MoneroXMR/EUR
39CardanoADA/XBT
40XRPXRP/USDT
41AlgorandALGO/USD
42TRONTRX/USD
43EthereumETH/USDT
44yearn.financeYFI/EUR
45LitecoinLTC/XBT
46USD CoinUSDC/EUR
47yearn.financeYFI/USD
48ZcashZEC/EUR
49AlgorandALGO/EUR
50Bitcoin CashBCH/XBT
51XRPXRP/GBP
52XRPXRP/ETH
53DashDASH/XBT
54TRONTRX/EUR
55Basic Attention TokenBAT/USD
56FilecoinFIL/USD
57CosmosATOM/USD
58WavesWAVES/EUR
59XRPXRP/CAD
60OMG NetworkOMG/EUR
61OMG NetworkOMG/USD
62WavesWAVES/USD
63PolkadotDOT/XBT
64Basic Attention TokenBAT/EUR
65EOSEOS/XBT
66BitcoinXBT/CHF
67TezosXTZ/XBT
68CosmosATOM/EUR
69BitcoinXBT/USDC
70EthereumETH/GBP
71Orchid ProtocolOXT/USD
72USD CoinUSDC/USDT
73AlgorandALGO/XBT
74Orchid ProtocolOXT/EUR
75yearn.financeYFI/XBT
76ZcashZEC/XBT
77KusamaKSM/EUR
78Curve DAO TokenCRV/EUR
79UniswapUNI/USD
80QtumQTUM/USD
81UniswapUNI/EUR
82CosmosATOM/XBT
83NanoNANO/EUR
84Ethereum ClassicETC/EUR
85CompoundCOMP/USD
86TetherUSDT/GBP
87SiacoinSC/EUR
88EthereumETH/CAD
89QtumQTUM/EUR
90TRONTRX/XBT
91StorjSTORJ/EUR
92TetherUSDT/CAD
93BitcoinXBT/AUD
94Kava.ioKAVA/EUR
95Bitcoin CashBCH/USDT
96NanoNANO/USD
97Ethereum ClassicETC/USD
98SiacoinSC/USD
99SiacoinSC/XBT
100DogecoinXDG/XBT
101ICONICX/EUR
102MelonMLN/EUR
103EthereumETH/USDC
104DaiDAI/EUR
105LiskLSK/XBT
106Basic Attention TokenBAT/XBT
107DogecoinXDG/EUR
108BitcoinXBT/DAI
109FilecoinFIL/EUR
110EthereumETH/CHF
111MelonMLN/USD
112Kava.ioKAVA/USD
113DaiDAI/USD
114EthereumETH/DAI
115CompoundCOMP/EUR
116PolkadotDOT/ETH
117WavesWAVES/XBT
118Curve DAO TokenCRV/USD
119TetherUSDT/JPY
120KusamaKSM/USD
121OMG NetworkOMG/XBT
122PAX GoldPAXG/EUR
123NanoNANO/XBT
124CardanoADA/ETH
125DogecoinXDG/USD
126Synthetix Network TokenSNX/USD
127AugurREP/EUR
128LiskLSK/EUR
129LitecoinLTC/USDT
130ICONICX/USD
131GnosisGNO/EUR
132Ethereum ClassicETC/XBT
133ChainlinkLINK/ETH
134KusamaKSM/ETH
135Kyber NetworkKNC/USD
136Kyber NetworkKNC/EUR
137XRPXRP/JPY
138PolkadotDOT/USDT
139NanoNANO/ETH
140UniswapUNI/XBT
141MelonMLN/ETH
142StorjSTORJ/USD
143KusamaKSM/XBT
144CardanoADA/USDT
145PAX GoldPAXG/USD
146AragonANT/USD
147XRPXRP/AUD
148Synthetix Network TokenSNX/EUR
149TRONTRX/ETH
150LitecoinLTC/ETH
151MelonMLN/XBT
152GnosisGNO/ETH
153AugurREP/USD
154ChainlinkLINK/USDT
155TezosXTZ/ETH
156Bitcoin CashBCH/ETH
157QtumQTUM/XBT
158ICONICX/XBT
159Orchid ProtocolOXT/XBT
160LiskLSK/USD
161BitcoinXBT/JPY
162OMG NetworkOMG/ETH
163Kyber NetworkKNC/ETH
164Curve DAO TokenCRV/XBT
165TetherUSDT/CHF
166Kava.ioKAVA/XBT
167EthereumETH/AUD
168AragonANT/EUR
169FilecoinFIL/XBT
170LitecoinLTC/GBP
171TetherUSDT/AUD
172EOSEOS/ETH
173Ethereum ClassicETC/ETH
174AlgorandALGO/ETH
175Kyber NetworkKNC/XBT
176CosmosATOM/ETH
177StorjSTORJ/XBT
178GnosisGNO/USD
179CompoundCOMP/XBT
180DaiDAI/USDT
181PAX GoldPAXG/XBT
182BalancerBAL/EUR
183PAX GoldPAXG/ETH
184Synthetix Network TokenSNX/XBT
185FilecoinFIL/ETH
186SiacoinSC/ETH
187EthereumETH/JPY
188EOSEOS/USDT
189Basic Attention TokenBAT/ETH
190CompoundCOMP/ETH
191Bitcoin CashBCH/GBP
192AugurREP/XBT
193LitecoinLTC/JPY
194AragonANT/XBT
195Orchid ProtocolOXT/ETH
196BalancerBAL/USD
197Curve DAO TokenCRV/ETH
198LiskLSK/ETH
199AugurREPV2/USD
200AugurREPV2/EUR
201Synthetix Network TokenSNX/ETH
202UniswapUNI/ETH
203yearn.financeYFI/ETH
204Kava.ioKAVA/ETH
205AragonANT/ETH
206GnosisGNO/XBT
207ICONICX/ETH
208AugurREPV2/XBT
209WavesWAVES/ETH
210Bitcoin CashBCH/AUD
211AugurREP/ETH
212QtumQTUM/ETH
213BalancerBAL/XBT
214Bitcoin CashBCH/JPY
215AugurREPV2/ETH
216StorjSTORJ/ETH
217BalancerBAL/ETH
218LitecoinLTC/AUD