Kraken - 2022 Review Review

Kraken is one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges in the industry, and due to its longevity in the space, it is considered one of the safest and most reliable places to trade. It is not only used by traders, but is also heavily used by specific institutions around the world.

The Kraken exchange is owned by Payward Inc. Not controlled by any supervisory authority, the Kraken exchange was founded in 2011 and during that time has gained customers from all countries. Kraken is the best place to buy and sell cryptocurrencies online and a qualitatively optimized system allows anyone to invest, regardless of the country of residence and the user's budget.

Experienced traders may prefer the lower-cost platform Kraken Pro, but the easiest place to start is the main Kraken platform.

Supported Cryptocurrencies

Kraken accepts the following fiat currencies:

US Dollar (USD)

Canadian Dollar (CAD)

Australian Dollar (AUD)

British Pound (GBP)

Euro (EUR)

Swiss Franc (CHF)

Japanese Yen (JPY)

And users can exchange these cryptocurrencies among others:

Augur (REP), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), Cosmos (ATOM), Dash (DASH), Dai (DAI), Dogecoin (XDG), EOS (EOS), Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Gnosis (GNO), ICON (ICX), Litecoin (LTC), Monero (XMR), Nano (NANO), OMG Network (OMG), PAX Gold (PAXG), QTUM (QTUM), Waves (WAVES), Siacoin (SC), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Sushi  (SUSHI), Tezos (XTZ), USD Coin (USDC), Zcash (ZEC).

Kraken's Fees Analysis

There are different fees for using Kraken's Instant Buy option, which might be interesting for beginners with less experience with Maker/Taker models. Instant Buy lives up to its name and allows you to buy cryptocurrencies quickly. However, the costs are much higher than using the Kraken trading platform, and you'd better learn how to use the trading platform to minimize the costs.

With Instant Buy, the company charges a 0.9% fee for trading stablecoins and 1.5% for most other cryptocurrencies. Users are also charged a 0.5% processing fee if they use online banking to buy their cryptocurrency. If you use a credit or debit card, additional fees will apply.

For users who opt for the higher-end version, Kraken Pro, the fees are significantly lower. The Pro version of the platform charges a maker fee of 0.16% and a take fee of 0.26% for trades of $50,000 or less. 

Security

Over the years, cryptocurrencies have proven particularly vulnerable to hacks that have resulted in millions of dollars in lost coin. While most hacked exchanges have refunded their customers for the lost value, you do not want to end up with a crypto exchange with low cybersecurity where your coins could be ripe for the taking.

Kraken takes its commitment to security very seriously, ranking first with a perfect score on crypto exchange review site CER. Remarkably, Kraken has not experienced any major hacking attacks since it started trading in 2013. Not even international industry leader Binance can claim that. Nevertheless, there are complaints from users about hacked accounts at Kraken in online forums.

Not only does Kraken offer safe storage of coins, with 95% of deposits stored offline in cold storage facilities spread around the world, but it also promises that the platform is secure. Servers are located in secure cages that are monitored 24/7 by armed guards and video monitors. In addition to physical security measures, Kraken encrypts all of your sensitive contact information at the system and data level and regularly performs vulnerability tests on its own system. Recently, Kraken was awarded the CSO50 Award for its security initiatives.

Ease of Use

Although Kraken can be an expensive entry point into cryptocurrency with its instant buy platform, there are no barriers to entry if you are just starting out. You can be automatically verified within minutes. The highest level, Pro, can take several days as certain documents need to be verified manually.

Once you are verified, you can fund your account with a fiat currency, such as US dollars, and start buying cryptocurrencies.

The platform does accept credit cards and debt accounts for depositing funds into your account. For each crypto purchase with a credit card, you will be charged a fee of 3.75% plus $0.25. If you use the basic version of Kraken with "Instant Buy", the flat fee of either 1.5% or 0.9% (depending on the crypto type) will be applied to your trade.

New investors might also feel a bit overwhelmed because Kraken assumes that customers have appropriate knowledge, although the platform offers good information.

While Kraken operates in the US, it does have some geographical restrictions. The platform is not available to users in New York and Washington.

Support

Kraken offers 24/7 support with instant responses via email, phone and chat. In order to address some response time delays, kraken has opened its own reddit thread where they attempt to answer queries from public users, when applicable.

Kraken has invested heavily in building the support infrastructure. Live Chat responds very quickly, staff are competent in all major difficulties that arise for customers, and technical issues are resolved quickly.

Despite that, not all users report the same outcomes. Some unhappy customers report trouble with funds due to hacking and trouble getting Kraken to release held funds.

Advanced Investing Options

More sophisticated investors will be satisfied with some of Kraken's additional offerings.

In addition to the coins that are available to everyone, investors can access margin trading. This type of trading is a risky form of investing where you can borrow money to fund purchases using your existing investments as collateral. With margin, you can earn exponentially higher profits, but you are also vulnerable to margin calls that can lead to massive losses if prices fall unexpectedly. Margin credit trading is less common on platforms available in the U.S., as the U.S. government is still working out how it will treat cryptocurrencies. The interest rate for margin loans is a maximum of 0.2%.

In addition to margin trading, you can stake (and unstake) selected coins. Coins you can stake include Ethereum (ETH), Cardano (ADA), and Solana (SOL), to name a few.

Kraken also offers futures trading on specific cryptocurrencies.

Supported Payment Methods

Wire Transfer

Cryptocurrency

Supported Countries

Kraken offers its services in over 180 countries on 4 continents, including Europe, America, Asia and Australia. There are only a handful of countries that are not currently supported.

Kraken does not offer services to residents of the following countries:

Afghanistan

Cuba

Guinea-Bissau

Iran

Iraq

Japan

Korea DPR

Tajikistan

Washington and New York in the United States

Final thoughts on Kraken

Kraken is a true industry leader and one of the best bitcoin exchanges today.

If you're looking for a secure exchange with low fees (especially if you're in Europe), then Kraken is an obvious choice.