Kraken Crypto Exchange Review - Buy, Sell and Hold Crypto

Marina Avramovikj

Verified by Tsvetomir Koychev

Last updated

January 29, 2026 07:23 EST

19min read

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Our extensive Kraken review will cover everything you need to know about this exchange, from its trading services to its fees and payment methods. We’ll also discuss its key features, security measures, and customer service, and you’ll learn how to benefit from its advanced trading interface, Kraken Pro, and its premium subscription service, Kraken+.

To find out what makes Kraken so popular among investors and what its biggest advantages and disadvantages are, we created an account and executed numerous trades. We also downloaded the Kraken Wallet to evaluate its capabilities. After many hours of testing, we can conclude that Kraken is an ideal exchange for experienced traders. Here’s why:

What is Kraken?

Kraken is a centralized crypto exchange based in San Francisco, California. The platform was founded in 2011 by Jesse Powell and Thanh Luu. Since its inception, Kraken has executed 2.5 billion trades, which placed it at number 14 (as of July 2025) on the list of the largest crypto exchanges in the world.

Kraken is also recognized as one of the best US-based platforms for experienced traders due to its advanced trading platform (Kraken Pro) tailored for institutional and high-frequency traders.

Kraken Exchange Overview:

Before we dive into the details, here’s an overview of Kraken’s features, services, fees, and deposit methods.

Is Kraken Safe?

Kraken implements a wide range of sophisticated security measures to prevent theft. On that note, it holds an ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification and SOC 2, Type 1 compliance, meaning it adheres to the highest security standards.

In addition, the exchange utilizes advanced hot and cold storage solutions and regularly undergoes Proof of Reserves (PoR) audits. This means you can verify if your account balance is fully backed by real assets. Kraken’s Proof of Reserves covers spot and staking balances and margin positions.

Its other security features include FIDO2-compliant two-factor authentication with passkeys, email confirmations for adding new withdrawal addresses, configurable account timeouts, SSL encryption, bug bounty programs, and real-time monitoring.

Kraken is regulated in Europe (Cyprus, EEA, and UK), North America (U.S. and Canada), and Australia. The platform is also registered as a money services business (MSB) with FinCEN.
So, is Kraken safe? Yes. Kraken is one of the few crypto exchanges that has never been hacked due to its robust security measures, although the platform was hit by a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack in 2017. During the attack, which lasted about an hour, users were unable to access Kraken’s website. However, this didn’t affect client funds.

In 2023, the SEC charged Kraken for operating as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, dealer, and clearing agency. However, in 2025, the SEC dismissed its lawsuit against Kraken with prejudice, which means that the agency cannot file the same lawsuit again.

Kraken Supported Coins and Trading Pairs

As mentioned at the beginning of our Kraken exchange review, the platform supports 540+ coins and tokens and 1,000 trading pairs. You’ll get to trade popular coins, like BTC and ETH, some of the best Solana-based memecoins, like BONK, FARTCOIN, and WIF, plus hot BNB memecoins, such as CHEEMS and CAT.

Kraken also supports crypto-to-cash, crypto-to-crypto, and cash-to-cash markets. However, U.S. clients won’t be able to trade cash-to-cash pairs.

At first glance, Kraken’s list of supported coins seems limited compared to exchanges like MEXC and CoinEx (both exchanges support over 1,000 coins). This is because Kraken favors more liquid and well-established tokens over coins associated with hype and speculation.

Kraken Trading and Investing

Kraken’s main services include spot and margin trading, derivatives, and staking. However, you’ll also get to trade stocks, ETFs, and xStocks (tokenized versions of real U.S. stocks and ETFs). Plus, you’ll get to set and edit a recurring buy schedule if you’re into dollar-cost-averaging. In the following segment, we’ll discuss these services in more detail:

Spot and Margin Trading

Kraken will enable you to use your spot holdings to trade over 150 margin-enabled markets with up to 5x leverage. This means you can open a position five times larger than your initial capital. The margin allowance depends on the used currency. For example, for USD, the allowance limit stands at $20,000,000.

The trading fees range from 0.01% to 0.04%, depending on the margin pair. You can use over 30 digital assets as collateral for margin trading, such as ETH, DOGE, ADA, and six fiat currencies – USD, GBP, CAD, EUR, AUD, and CHF.

Kraken’s margin service is available to most Intermediate and Pro clients who reside outside of the U.S., UK, and Canada, while U.S. users need to meet specific requirements. For example, they need to self-certify as an Eligible Contract Participant (ECP) and have over $10 million in assets invested on a discretionary basis.

Derivatives

Kraken supports 350+ USD linear perpetual futures and 100+ multi-collateral futures contracts. You can also trade FX perpetual futures, such as EUR/USD, GBP/USD, AUD/USD, JPY/USD, and CHF/USD, with up to 50x leverage. Kraken’s perpetual futures contracts come with a maximum order size of $5,000,000.

You can use multiple order types to execute your trading strategies, from market and limit orders to stop-loss and take-profit orders. You can also edit your existing orders in reaction to market conditions.

Kraken offers two platforms for trading derivatives, one tailored for U.S. traders and the other for non-U.S. traders. This means that U.S. clients get to trade CME-listed cryptocurrency futures contracts. However, we noticed that Kraken doesn’t support USDS futures, which is a bit of a letdown. On a positive note, Kraken charges competitive maker and taker fees for futures that start at 0.0200% and 0.0500%, respectively.

Kraken xStocks

Kraken is one of the few exchanges that support xStocks. These are tokenized shares of U.S. stocks and ETFs. On that note, Kraken supports 55+ U.S. stocks such as TSLAx, AAPLx, and GMEx. While writing this Kraken crypto review, we noticed that the minimum purchase limit stands at a mere $1, and there are no trading fees if you use USDG or USD to buy xStocks, which is a big plus.

Trading xStocks is available to non-U.S. users in select countries, while this option is currently unavailable to users from the U.S. However, U.S. clients can invest in 11,000+ traditional stocks and ETFs for zero fees.

Recurrent Buy

Kraken lets you set up recurring buy orders to automatically buy crypto at set intervals (daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly) and build your portfolio over time. You can edit your recurring purchase schedules whenever you want, as well as update your payment methods and adjust the amounts.

You can also use its built-in Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA) calculator to simulate the trades and set up a recurring order with your cash account balance, digital wallet (Apple Pay or Google Pay), or card payments for AUD, CAD, CHF, EUR, GBP, and USD.

On the downside, the recurring buy feature is only available on the Kraken mobile app.

Kraken Staking

Kraken is recognized as one of the highest APY crypto staking platforms for a good reason. Namely, this crypto exchange will enable you to earn up to 17% APY by staking 25 digital assets, such as ETH, ADA, ATOM, DOT, SOL, and XRP. You can also activate the auto earn feature to generate passive income from idle assets and use them as collateral, or you can choose bonded staking to increase the yield on your unused assets.

Kraken supports BTC staking via the Babylon protocol. This means you’ll receive rewards in the form of Babylon’s native token, $BABY.

Staking rewards are paid out once per week. You won’t have to pay staking or unstaking fees; however, Kraken will take a percentage of your earned rewards. At the time of writing, the staking service is unavailable in California, Maryland, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, while EEA and Canada-based clients can’t stake BTC.

Kraken Pro

You can choose between two main versions of the platform: Kraken and Kraken Pro. The former is designed for beginners, while the latter is tailored for advanced traders, as you’ll soon find out from our Kraken Pro review.

Kraken Pro features a customizable interface. This means you can create and save multiple dashboards to suit your trading style and use over 25 trading and data widgets. You can also use advanced order types (stop loss, take profit, IOC, reduce-only) and modify your orders directly on the chart. There’s also an app switcher button that allows you to quickly switch between Kraken and Kraken Pro.

That said, Kraken Pro differs from its basic counterpart in many ways. For example, it supports advanced order options, margin and futures trading, and price alerts. Its only drawback is that it doesn’t support the instant buy option. Kraken Pro is free to use and is available as a desktop app for Mac and Windows, and a mobile app for Android and iOS devices.

Kraken+ Subscription

Kraken+ is a premium subscription that lets you trade up to $10,000 per month in major currencies (USD, GBP, CAD, AUD, EUR, and CHF) for zero fees. However, this applies only to trades made through the buy, sell, and convert features. I.e., it doesn’t include spot and futures fees. You can also double the rewards on your USDG holdings (up to 4%+ APR) and gain access to day-one listings, exclusive airdrops, and new trading tools.

In addition to that, you get free crypto tax reports for 800 Kraken transactions and a 50% discount on paid Koinly plans for crypto tax reporting. Kraken+ costs $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year. However, we suggest you take advantage of its 30‑day free trial and test it out before committing.

Kraken Wallet

Kraken Wallet is a self-custody, open-source wallet that supports multiple networks, from Bitcoin and Ethereum to Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Solana, Dogecoin, and Base. You can use it to store and manage 2,000+ cryptocurrencies and NFTs on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Polygon, and Solana, and connect to dApps.

This software wallet has a built-in swap feature, which enables you to swap tokens without fees. Kraken Wallet recently added a new option – encrypted iCloud backup – allowing you to sync your passkey across all your devices. The wallet has a user-friendly interface and is available on iOS and Android devices.

Kraken Fees

This segment of our Kraken review will cover its fees. Buying crypto on Kraken comes with a fixed 1% trading fee, while for small balance conversions, you’ll pay a fixed 3% fee. As mentioned before, Kraken+ members enjoy zero trading fees if they trade up to $10,000 per month. NFT transactions come with a 2% fee per trade, while trading stocks and ETFs doesn’t incur fees. You won’t have to pay a trading fee if you buy xStocks with USDG or USD. However, if you use other assets, you’ll pay 1%.

Kraken Pro users pay the following fees:

If you compare Kraken with the lowest-fee crypto exchanges, you’ll notice that its initial fees for spots are significantly higher than those offered by KCEX, Binance, and KuCoin. However, when it comes to futures, Kraken’s fees are extremely competitive.

Kraken Payment Methods

Kraken supports multiple payment options, depending on your country. You can use credit/debit cards (Visa and Mastercard), digital wallets (Apple/Google Pay), AHC, SEPA, SWIFT, wire transfer, PayPal, and e-Transfers.

FedWire (Customers Bank and Dart Bank) withdrawals come with a $4 fee, and SWIFT withdrawals come with a $35 withdrawal fee.

The minimum deposit requirement will depend on your payment method. For example, credit/debit card deposits have a minimum requirement of $10.

Withdrawal limits, on the other hand, depend on your verification level. Intermediate (basic verification) users can cash out $500,000 per day and $15,000,000 per month. In contrast, Pro (highest verification level) users will get to withdraw $10,000,000+ daily, and there are no monthly limits.

Is Kraken User-Friendly?

Kraken offers five different apps – Kraken app, Kraken Pro, Kraken Desktop, Krak, and Kraken Wallet. The Kraken app supports quick and convenient crypto transactions, which makes it suitable for beginners. This app is compatible with Android and iOS devices.

Kraken Pro is a mobile app (iOS and Android) tailored for experienced traders, while the Kraken Desktop app will allow you to trade crypto on your Windows, Mac, or Linux. The desktop app is more suitable for advanced traders since it’s integrated with the Kraken Pro account. I.e., it utilizes custom price alerts, advanced order types, and ladder trading.

What we liked most about the Kraken Desktop app was its customizability. You can arrange up to 48 widgets per board, choose between 20 themes, and adjust the application’s sounds. The app also supports multi-window mode, which means that you’ll be able to open multiple windows simultaneously.

Kraken Wallet app is tailored for mobile users who want to interact with DeFi and NFTs, while Krak is a global money app that will allow you to send money to 160+ countries, hold 300+ currencies and cryptocurrencies, and earn rewards.

Krak is available to all Kraken users, except those residing in Australia and prohibited regions. However, we noticed that crypto and cash transfers are not available in all U.S. states. For example, crypto transfers are unavailable in IN, ME, and NY, while cash transfers are unavailable in CA, CO, IN, LA, ME, MA, NY, and UT.

To sum up our Kraken app review, all five applications are intuitive. However, beginners may find the Kraken Desktop and the Kraken Pro app difficult to navigate due to their advanced trading tools and options.

Where is Kraken Available?

Kraken is available in over 190 countries, including the U.S., UK, and Canada. However, due to regulatory issues, the platform is unavailable in:

• Afghanistan
• Belarus
• Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions of Ukraine
• Crest
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Iran
• Iraq
• Japan
• Libya
• North Korea
• Russia
• Sudan
• South Sudan

Moreover, Kraken doesn’t offer its services to residents of Maine and New York.

Kraken Customer Support

You can reach Kraken support through 24/7 live chat, email, and phone. You can also check out its Help Center to find the answers to the most common questions related to account funding, KYC verification, and trading.

We noticed that the live chat and phone support are available only on the Kraken mobile app. Moreover, Kraken has a low rating on Trustpilot (1.5 out of 5) mostly due to its slow customer support and automated IVR system. This means that Kraken’s call system uses pre-recorded messages and menu options before transferring you to a human agent.

Nevertheless, we took the Trustpilot reviews with a pinch of salt, as Kraken’s rating is based on just over 3,000 reviews, which is not enough to draw a final conclusion.

This is why we contacted Kraken ourselves via live chat and phone. We had to wait about 3 minutes to get a response from a live chat agent who was very polite and helpful. However, we had to wait 15 minutes before initiating a new chat. As for phone support, we wouldn’t recommend it because you could get stuck in automated loops during periods of high inquiry volumes.

Where Can Kraken Improve?

Kraken supports ten fiat currencies – USD, EUR, CAD, AUD, GBP, CHF, JPY, ARS, BTL, and MXN, which is a relatively small number compared to other exchanges. For example, Binance offers over 80.

Moreover, U.S. clients can’t trade cash-to-cash pairs, meaning they’ll have to pay additional conversion fees. As mentioned before, Kraken charges a fixed 3% fee for small balance conversions.

Kraken supports only CME crypto futures contracts, so you won’t be able to trade USDS futures. This is a big loss for traders who are into trading stablecoin derivatives and hedging. What’s more, U.S. users won’t be able to invest in xStocks, which is a shame since the product offers an excellent way to trade tokenized shares of top US stocks and ETFs.

How to Get Started With Kraken

In this segment of our Kraken review, we’ll show you how to create an account in three steps.

Step 1. Visit the Official Kraken Website

Go to Kraken’s official website and tap the Sign-up button in the upper-right corner. You can create a personal or a business account. To create a personal account, enter your email and password and select your country. Check the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy box and tap the Create account button.

Step 2. Enter the Activation Code

Kraken will email you a 6-digit activation code that you’ll need to enter to activate your account

Step 3. Verify Your Account

Sign in to your Kraken account and tap the Verify identity button. Next, you need to enter your first and last name, date of birth, and address. You may also be required to name your income sources. After that, you must upload a photo of your government ID.

Step 4. Fund Your Account

After you’ve been verified, you’ll be able to deposit both fiat and crypto into your account. The available payment methods include credit cards, wire transfers, and third-party payment providers, such as Google Pay.

Step 5. Start Trading and Investing

With your account funded, you can begin exploring Kraken’s services, such as conversions, spot and derivatives trading, staking, and more.

Kraken Review Conclusion: Who Is It Best For?

Kraken is a solid option for experienced and high-frequency traders since its Pro platform offers spot and margin trading, plus derivatives. You can also trade FX perpetual futures with up to 50x leverage, 55+ U.S. stocks, 11,000+ traditional stocks and ETFs, and xStocks.

Moreover, you can download Kraken’s self-custodial wallet to manage and trade crypto and NFTs, while its premium subscription plan will allow you to trade up to $10,000 per month in major currencies for zero fees. On the downside, beginners may find this platform difficult to navigate due to its customizable interface and its five different apps for different use cases.

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Marina Avramovikj

Crypto Content Writer

Marina is a content writer with over 5 years of experience in the cryptocurrency space. Her specialty is writing reviews and guides for centralized and decentralized crypto exchanges and crypto wallets, with a focus on security, usability, and user experience. She regularly tests crypto platforms and wallets to provide readers with clear, unbiased, and useful information through practical guides and comparative analyses.

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