In 2021 statistics attest that 10% of the world’s capital is in virtual currencies after total market capital surpassed $2 trillion. Therefore, the growing demand has led to the emergence of over 300 crypto exchange websites. In the Kraken Review, we evaluate one of the most popular cryptocurrency trading applications. You can buy or sell digital assets, trade crypto tokens on a secure platform, and learn about cryptocurrency and blockchain using Kraken.
About the Kraken Review
We aim to create a comprehensive overview of Kraken so that users can confidently choose their exchange platform of preference. Therefore, the Kraken Review is composed of the sections mentioned below:
- What is Kraken?
- Which fiat currencies does Kraken support?
- What coins can I trade on Kraken?
- What are Kraken’s top features?
- How much are the transaction fees and other costs?
- What are other alternative crypto exchange apps?
- Conclusion
If you’re new to the realm of crypto, I would suggest you read about Bitcoin, Etherium, and other cryptocurrencies. In addition, reading on Blockchain technology and crypto blockchain would be helpful for understanding the rest of the article.
What is Kraken?
When you want to buy cryptocurrencies, you need to exchange your fiat money such as USD or GBP to coins like Bitcoin, Etherium, and DOGE coins. That’s where you need cryptocurrency exchanges, similar to when you want to buy stocks at a stock market. Kraken is a Cryptocurrency exchange based in the United States that was founded in 2011. Moreover, Kraken is among the top five popular exchange platforms with over a Billion dollars worth of coins traded daily. Kraken doesn’t own a token to its name, yet it hosts a wide variety of crypto tokens.
Supported fiats, Kraken Review
Although most countries support the USD and EUR, people would prefer to trade coins using their national currency to avoid transaction fees. Thus, the more fiat currencies a crypto exchange software supports, the more popular it becomes. In this part of the Kraken Review, we have listed the national currencies that Kraken supports for buying digital tokens or withdrawing cash.
The following quote currencies can be used to buy or sell Bitcoin, Etherium, and Ripple in Kraken:
- USD
- CAD
- JPY
- EUR
- GBP
- CHF
- AUD
Some of the fiat money mentioned above is not acceptable for the rest of the base currencies, such as Litecoin and Dogecoin. However, USD and EUR are generally supported for turning cash into coins in Kraken.
What crypto tokens can I trade in Kraken? Kraken Review, Supported coins
There are over 6000 different virtual tokens available on the internet. Approximately over a hundred cryptocurrencies are worth a net cap of over a Billion USD as of September 2021. Users would like their exchange platform to offer as many coins as possible; thus, in this section of the Kraken Review, we discuss the abundance of tradable crypto assets on the platform.
Kraken offers about 70 coins that are among the most valuable cryptocurrencies in terms of new capital and volume of trades. There are also three stable coins that you can trade on Kraken: USD Coin (USDC), DAI (DAI), and Tether (USDT). Therefore, Kraken seems a reliable and secure media for exchanging virtual assets over the net.
Most of these coins are based on the Etherium platform, or ERC-20, whereas the rest use an independent platform.
Kraken Review: Features. What are Kraken Top features?
Perhaps the coins and national currencies impact users’ preferences, but the most significant factor in determining the effectiveness of a web application is the features that it offers users. Kraken exchange software provides different tools that we have overviewed in this part of the Kraken Review.
- Kraken user experience (UX)
- Support
- Margin trading
- OTC
- Tutorials
- Indices
- Web sockets
Besides the items mentioned above, transaction fees are essential in an exchange application. Therefore, we have dedicated an entire section to costs and expenses in the Kraken Review.
Kraken UX evaluation
Crypto trading requires detailed analytics, which translates to spending a tremendous amount of time on cryptocurrency trade websites. Kraken utilizes a festive design theme that is interesting at first glance, but the vibrant blue theme is not friendly to the eyes in the long run. In fact, it is proven that blue light influences your sleep cycle.
The default view is basic and straightforward, which is best for beginners, yet useless to professionals. That’s why Kraken offers the prices in different settings.
Kraken Classic View
For old-timer stock exchange traders, the classic view is similar to the earliest Wall Street infographics. It is also appealing to programmers who want to export the data to other APIs.
The Advanced View
This view is my personal favorite overview since it holds crucial information and market fluctuations. This view provides the minimal data required for tech analysis which professional traders perform before trading. It is also an excellent way to trace market trends.
Generally speaking, Kraken is easy-to-use and informative; therefore, it passes the UX assessment. Four million active users around the world attest to that claim.
Support
Kraken has 24/7 support on the watch in case you have a problem with trading your assets.
You can search the content you’re inquiring about in the search box or browse the support menus. Alternatively, you can use the chat support icon or email the Kraken Support Team.
Margin Trading in Kraken Review
Margin tracking is one of the advanced features of the Kraken exchange platform. Using the tools provided in Kraken, you can leverage your investments. Caution! Avoid leveraging your assets unless you’re a trade expert. Remember, the higher the reward, the higher the risk.
Another exciting feature in Kraken is setting market and limit orders. Using these tools, you can trade during your sleep. You set the limits automatically trigger a trade when the coin you chose hits a specific price or volume limit.
OTC
You can make one-on-one coin-to-coin or coin-to-currency trades using the secure OTC platform. The downside of performing OTC trades on Kraken is that the trade can be made for transactions worth over $100,000. These trades do not cost transaction fees since there is no third party involved.
Indices
You can view cryptocurrency indices in Kraken powered by CF Benchmarking. This means that the prices and indices are updated at a close to real-time rate. This feature provides Kraken users with the latest market information.
Futures
If you are interested in Futures coins, Kraken provides perpetual, monthly, quarterly, and semiannual futures. You can leverage these contracts up to 50 times. There is a 0.01% takers fee on futures; however, the makers fee is free.
Tutorials, Kraken Review
Even expert traders need to refresh their knowledge during updates and shake-ups. Therefore, a reliable cryptocurrency exchange application has to provide both internal and external feed on the latest updates in the realm of cryptocurrencies and tutorials on how to trade. In this part of the Kraken Review, we discuss Kraken and crypto’s in-house and external educational material.
In-house Kraken tutorials
Information is scattered on Kraken, and you can find it everywhere. Each tool has a brief description that is useful to newcomers and experts. In addition to those scripts, there are Blogs, Crypto guides, Videos, Podcasts, and FAQs. There are also Webinar Videos, articles, and Podcasts on crypto and Kraken.
Additionally, suppose you want to learn more about crypto or how you can use Kraken. In that case, there are information sources for you to check out. First, let’s start with the most common video streaming app, YouTube.
Kraken has an official YouTube channel with interviews and instructive videos. Moreover, many influencers and independent traders have reviewed and taught how to use Kraken to profit.
There are also many courses on cryptocurrencies and Kraken on educational websites such as Udemy. Thus, you can learn how to use Kraken and gain profit using both in-house and external feeds.
What are Kraken rates and transaction fees? Kraken Review
First and foremost, traders might pay little attention to quirky tools in a trade application, yet it is the transaction fee that makes them interested or run away. This section of the Kraken Review discusses how the transaction rates are when you take and make in Kraken.
Instant trade fees
Kraken is abiding by US regulation which has both positive and negative points. On the bright side, you have secure transactions; on the other hand, the bank transactions are higher.
When it comes to instant trades, the Kraken exchange application charges 0.9% for stable coins and 1.5% for other crypto pairs.
Kraken Pro fees
If you use Kraken Pro, the rates depend on the amount of trade you had in the last 30 days.
The Kraken transaction fees start at 0.16% makers and 0.26% takers fee for transactions under $50K. The fees are cut down by 0.02% on every scale until you reach $10 Million trade volume, where your makers fee will be zero, and your withdrawal will cost 0.1%.
Margin trades fees
If you want to set margin trades, the opening fee is 0.02% except for BTC, USDT, and USDC that are traded for 0.01%. Then your rollover fee will be calculated as 0.02% for every 4 hours.
Overall fees analysis, Kraken Review
Kraken offers fair margin deals and also instant deals considering that it follows US regulations. Compare to Coinbase transaction fees to get the picture. However, to evaluate Kraken, we have to know the top competitors.
Kraken Review: what are 2021 best cryptocurrency exchange apps?
With the exponential growth of crypto-asset investments, many exchange applications have started up during the last couple of years. We have examined six other top cryptocurrency exchange tools at Cyberg, which we briefly introduce as a part of the Kraken Review to give information on the top competitors in the crypto exchange niche.
Binance:
Binance is the most prominent exchange application throughout all available cryptocurrency exchange platforms. It supports most coins and holds the most famous trade volume regarding each currency. Binance offers many professional tools, and that explains why they charge more than Kraken. However, I recommend you read our review on the most popular cryptocurrency application.
Coinbase:
Coinbase is a secure platform for buying and selling currencies like Bitcoin, Etherium, and other currencies. Binance is the number one in terms of trade volume by far. However, Coinbase offers a wide range of educational material and highly secure trading options. In addition, it is approved by US regulations, just like Kraken. It is also worth noting that Kraken has a lower transaction fee compared to Coinbase in general. Read the Coinbase Review for more information on the application.
KuCoin:
KuCoin is a virtual currency exchange application. KYC is the coin you can use in this exchange platform if you want virtually no transaction fees. KuCoin is more limited in terms of tokens and also net trade volume. It is also not regulated by the US. Read the KuCoin Review for more detail.
FTX :
This bank and exchange agency also provides support for different virtual currencies. The transaction fees are much cheaper than FTX; however, users find FTX easier to use and more user-friendly. On the other hand, Kraken has the upper hand in following US regulations and share in European countries.
Huobi Global:
Huobi Global is a Chinese company that allows cryptocurrency exchange. The app is a serious rival to Kraken in terms of transaction fees and supported altcoins. Huobi global supports more coin markets; however, the average transaction fees are ten times more than Kraken.
Bitfinex:
Bitfinex is based in Hong Kong and offers cryptocurrency exchange to over a hundred different nations. Thus, they are almost the same in terms of international coverage. Bitfinex has higher transaction fees but lower withdrawal fees. In return, it supports a wide variety of coins.
Comparison results
Kraken is a safe Cryptocurrency exchange and storage option with millions of users and billions of dollars traded on a daily basis. However, the Variety is narrower than Binance. It also costs a bit more compared to FTX. However, the user interface is easy to follow, and the options are practical. Kraken is neither the best app nor the worst. In the end, it comes down to your preference as the user. In other words, you can opt for an exchange with lower fees and less available coins or a more sophisticated one with higher costs. Eventually, they are all great applications, and whichever you choose is going to work for you.
Kraken Review Conclusion
First, I’d like to thank you for following the article and Cyberg. We have evaluated the fiats and tokens that you can trade over Kraken. Then, we discussed its features and cost. Next, we mentioned a few mighty rivals that challenge the mighty Kraken. Finally, it is time to bring this Review home, but first, let’s recap the positive and negative points of the application.
What are the positive points of trading on Kraken?
70 different tokens are available
Various trade options: futures, margins …
Adequate support and tutorials
What are the negative points of using Kraken?
Difficult to start with
No credit cards
OTC trades are not practical
Kraken Review overview
In a nutshell, the Kraken user interface is not that hard to follow compared to other virtual coin exchanges. The features are relevantly limited. However, the transaction fees are reasonable considering the number of coins provided and that it follows US Regulations. There are some features such as credit cards and NFTs that are not available on Kraken. In the end, Kraken is an acceptable crypto exchange and storage tool.
Please tell us what you think of Kraken and share your previous experiences with Kraken and other cryptocurrency applications.
