Kraken

The 1 Minute Summary

  • Kraken have been around a long while (at least for the crypto industry).
  • Their fees are very competitive
  • They have a good reputation for security.
  • With an app for newbies and a more powerful Kraken Pro app, you can grow your skills with this platform.
  • You won´t find as high margin multiples as some of their competitors such as Binance
  • The trading interface can feel confusing at first
  • SEPA deposits are free in Europe

Kraken is based in San Francisco, California, and is one of the longest established cryptocurrency exchanges which in itself gives you reassurance. They have been around the block and seen many of the ups and downs.

They offer lots of tools ranging from a simplified trading app and platform, to a pro trading interface, a futures exchange plus margin trading and OTC options. We wouldn’t put them in the same bracket as Binance or Gate.io in terms of features, but they are arguably friendlier to use. It’s certainly a less intimidating platform to start trading crypto on.

And Kraken offer very competitive trading fees.

Overview

Launched by Jesse Powell in 2011, Kraken also scores marks for security, an area that they have worked on over the years.

Kraken serves customers from the United States, Canada, the EU and Japan. The exchange has high liquidity and is one of the top 3 exchanges by visitor numbers. They offer a bigger selection of markets than their main competitor Coinbase, but do not offer the depth of markets of exchanges such as Binance, Huobi and Gate.io

Kraken holds full reserves of trader’s funds which are audited by a third party. No crypto exchange is 100% safe, but Kraken make a lot of noise about being one of the safest.

You can trade spot and margin here on the Pro platform albeit with lower margin levels than some of their competitors. The Pro platform isn’t that user friendly: it takes a while to get the hang of it, but it’s pretty powerful.

They also offer staking on some coins.

The Starter App

There are 2 apps for Kraken. The first one is a simplified trading app. You´ll be able to see the leaders in the market illustrated with simple line graphs.

Head into the coins and you will get an overview of the currency and the latest news from the Kraken blog. Just tap the buy button and you will have easy options to buy $20, $50, $100 or more of the coins.

It´s nicely done and a good intro into the market.

Head into your balance area, and you will get a clear graphic detailing the splits of your funds, your balances and more info on the top gainers in the last 24hrs.

If you want to make more complicated trades you are going to need the Kraken Pro app, but the basic app is a good, user friendly start.

It’s well designed, clear and easy to use.

Kraken Pro App

The Kraken Pro app has a lot more under the hood, as you would expect.

Search through all available markets by coin on the home page and pick your trading pair. You get a lot more information on market movements here with a candle graph (or line), order book display and ability to open limit and market orders with options for stop loss and take profit limits.

On the Balance tab, you can see all of your FIAT and crypto funds, plus you get a summary of any staked funds.

You are probably going to want to use the desktop platform for more complex trades on Kraken, but the Pro app is a powerful tool to keep track of your trades and make changes on the fly.

Depositing FIAT

You can deposit in the following currencies

Euros
US Dollars
CA Dollars
AUS Dollars
UK Pounds
Swiss Franc
Japanese Yen

You can deposit via SEPA, SWIFT and wire transfer. Make sure that you include the reference code they give you on your transfer so that the funds can find your account. The service is pretty quick (1-2 business days). In my experience it’s not as quick as Coinbase, but it quicker than Binance. They are average, but I have never lost a deposit.

You can also deposit the following crypto:
Take a look at our “Filecoin Explained” article for more information on one of their tradeable assets.

  • Aave
  • Algorand (ALGO)
  • Aragon
  • Augur (REP)
  • Balancer (BAL)
  • Basic Attention Token (BAT)
  • Bitcoin (BTC)
  • Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
  • Cardano (ADA)
  • Chainlink (LINK)
  • Compound (COMP)
  • Cosmos (ATOM)
  • Curve (CRV)
  • Dai (DAI)
  • Dash (DASH)
  • Dogecoin (DOGE)
  • Energy Web (EWT)
  • Enzyme Finance (MLN)
  • EOS (EOS)
  • Ethereum (ETH)
  • Ethereum Classic (ETC)
  • Filecoin (FIL)
  • Flow (FLOW)
  • Gnosis (GNO)
  • ICON (ICX)
  • Kava (KAVA)
  • Keep Network (KEEP)
  • Kusama (KSM)
  • Kyber Network (KNC)
  • Lisk (LSK)
  • Litecoin (LTC)
  • Monero (XMR)
  • Nano (NANO)
  • Ocean Token (OCEAN)
  • OMG Network (OMG)
  • Orchid (OXT)
  • PAX Gold (PAXG)
  • Polkadot (DOT)
  • Qtum (QTUM)
  • Ripple (XRP)
  • Siacoin (SC)
  • Storj (STORJ)
  • Synthetix (SNX)
  • tBTC
  • Tether (USDT)
  • Tezos (XTZ)
  • Tron (TRX)
  • Uniswap (UNI)
  • USD Coin (USDC)
  • Melon (MLN)
  • Waves (WAVES)
  • Yearn Finance (YFI)
  • Zcash (ZEC)

You won’t be able to trade some of the less well known coins like Tokocrypto here, however.

Fees

One of the benefits of trading with Kraken is their low fees which they set to maximise liquidity on their platform. You can find all of their latest fees HERE.

Staking

Kraking offers staking across the following coins:

  • Polkadot
  • Kusama
  • Kava
  • Cosmos (ATOM)
  • Tezos
  • Flow Hold
  • Flow
  • Ethereum
  • Bitcoin
  • EUR
  • USD

Summary

Kraken is one of the big names in the cryptocurrency and they are well established. This is a safe pair of hands if you want to get involved in the crypto industry and they have a range of apps that should take you from newbie to pro as you grow your knowledge and trading fees. There are more innovative exchanges out there offering all sorts of financial products, but if you want a service that does a bit of everything and does it well, they are a solid choice.