Author: Harry Napier
Kraken Cryptocurrency Exchange Review
Kraken is a cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in San Francisco, CA, and founded in 2011 by Jesse Powell. It lays claim to the title of the biggest Bitcoin exchange in the industry with regard to liquidity and euro volume. In this article, topics to discuss will be the exchange itself, services offered, and its reputation to the customers.
Kraken Review Summary
Kraken is a crypto exchange that has been long established in the industry. It is considered to be among the veterans in the business. It offers advanced services such as margin trading and over-the-counter options on its trading platform.
Despite being once labeled as unstable, the site has been re-developed for the better.
Now, it prioritizes client security and services on customer support. Also, Kraken has one of the cheapest trading fees today.
This article will cover various topics, namely:
- Kraken Overview
- Kraken Services
- Currencies and Payment Methods
- Kraken Fees
- Supported Countries
- Customer Support and Reviews
- Kraken vs. Coinbase
- Conclusion – Is Kraken Legit?
Kraken Overview
Founded in 2011, Kraken is commended for its cheap transaction fees, various advanced features, and security overall. During the massive hack, then the bankruptcy of Mt. Gox, Kraken has offered services in the processing of claims.
Kraken offers its services across the United States, with the exception of New York due to issues of BitLicense. It is also not available in Canada, Japan, and countries under the European Union.
The exchange was actually launched in 2013, raising up to more than $100 million since its establishment. Its latest round closing was in February 2019. The exchange brags about its high liquidity, high-level security measures, and customer support that is live and available 24/7.
Kraken has full control of its clients’ funds. The exchange also uses an independent and cryptographically-verified audit to present proof to both customers and third-party institutions that the exchange keeps client funds with total transparency.
Kraken Services
In Kraken’s advanced trading platform, among the features offered are margin trading, spot trading, and a few others. These features are more attractive to expert traders who have been trading long in the field. The interface of the platform has various options, which is something that a beginning trader must consider. It is not the most beginner-friendly platform out there compared to others.
Regarding high volume trades that exceed $100 thousand, Kraken offers an option to do an OTC or over the counter trading. This service is a one-to-one interaction that proves to be more comfortable for the clients. In addition to that, traders who do high-volume trades are commonly granted a personal account manager that will help them in their trading decisions.
Kraken has a dark pool, which is a private forum that is not visible to the rest of the market. Once you are inside this forum, you can trade multiple securities or financial assets without having to reveal your identity. Your information will only be revealed to the investor you are trading with once the trade has been executed.
In most cases, outsized orders can cause the market to move in an unfavorable way once other traders see them. This makes it more difficult to execute the order at the preferred price of the trader. These kinds of cases are preventable in private forums like a dark pool.
Currencies and Payment Methods
Kraken accepts a number of fiat currencies, including Euro (EUR), Canadian dollar (CAD), and US dollar (USD).
Payment methods during deposits and withdrawals can be executed through SWIFT, SEPA, wire, and domestic transfers. Commonly, deposit and withdrawal can take 1-5 business days to process.
The average deposit takes 24 hours, at the very least. Usually, Kraken does not charge any fee in depositing any currency that they support. However, there might be a small address setup fee in some cases.
With fiat deposits, SEPA deposits are not charged with any sort of fee. This means that traders within countries under the EU, as well as countries on the list of SEPA, can deposit with convenience.
A bank wire transfer usually charges $5-10 if you are in the United States. If you are outside of the US, you will be charged €10 or £10.
In regard to cryptocurrencies, Kraken supports all crypto listed below:
- Tezos (XTZ)
- Melon (MLN)
- Cardano (ADA)
- Augur (REP)
- Ripple (XRP)
- Dash (DASH)
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Gnosis (GNO)
- Zcash (ZEC)
- Cosmos (ATOM)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Iconomi (ICN)
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
- Ethereum Classic (ETC)
- Qtum (QTUM)
- Stellar Lumens (XLM)
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
- EOS (EOS)
- Tether (USDT)
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Monero (XMR)
Kraken Fees
As stated above, Kraken charges one of the cheapest fees in the industry today. Additionally, each client’s fee depends on his or her trading volume of the past 30 days. Generally, charging of the fees depends on the maker-taker basis.
Makers, of the traders who add limit orders to the exchange, pay a fee that is considerably low compared to takers, or the traders who fulfill the existing orders.
The fees are listed as follows:
- Stablecoin trading (0.2% – 0%)
- Spot trading (0.26% – 0.06%)
- Dark pool (0.36% – 0.2%)
Supported Countries
Kraken’s cryptocurrency exchange services are offered worldwide except in the countries listed below:
- Iraq
- Tajikistan
- Cuba
- North Korea
- Japan
- Iran
- Afghanistan
The crypto exchange also offers its services on the trading platform to residents of the United States of America, except for traders located in the states of Washington and New York.
Customer Support and Reviews
Kraken’s official website offers a wide range of support guide which touches on multiple crypto trading topics such as account verification and crypto trading itself. In most cases, each trader will find whatever it is he or she is looking for.
However, there might be cases where the client cannot find what he is looking for on the site or that he simply needs a more hands-on approach to his need. This is where the website’s customer support services come in. Clients of Kraken can avail of this service by submitting a support ticket to the CS team. Once it has been picked up, the client can have one-on-one personal help with a customer representative through the site’s live chat.
Kraken’s reputation with the public is considerably good, especially that many clients agree on its many strengths. These include Kraken’s cheap fees, sophisticated features, and solid security.
With this, it can be seen that Kraken has a fairly good reputation as a crypto exchange; however, this did not help the exchange avoid a bad rating on TrustPilot.
Overall, Kraken seems to have improved throughout its career, and its level of services when it comes to customer support and platform stability has changed for the better.
Kraken vs. Coinbase
Kraken has many similarities to another US-based cryptocurrency exchange platform called Coinbase, also known as CoinbasePro.
The two exchanges have a similarity in their fee structure and availability of services, including margin trading, over-the-counter options, and account management. The only difference in that area is that Coinbase offers a relatively narrow choice of cryptocurrencies.
The major difference between the two platforms is in the area of support services. Kraken is considerably stronger in the area since support services have been a major priority of the platform ever since it was improved. Overall, if the crypto you are going to trade is available on both sites, it is best to check for other features that might not be available or which might be better than the other; then, you can make your choice.
Conclusion—Is Kraken Legit or not?
Overall, it is fair to say that Kraken is a good choice of cryptocurrency exchange platform to use. It has excellent features and services, solid security, and cheaper transaction fees. However, due to its complex platform that is not very beginner-friendly, it might not be the best option for traders who are only starting in the crypto exchange industry. However, this is a good choice of a platform for expert traders.
Kraken is a veteran crypto exchange platform that has built a good reputation throughout its career. Seeing as to how big it is now, it is safe to say that the crypto exchange will stay in the industry for many more years.
