Kraken Review

Kraken is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange run by Payward Inc., a company based in San Francisco. It lets customers buy and sell crypto with fiat currencies and, where they are eligible, trade on margin and in futures. It is one of the older exchanges still operating: it was established in 2011 and opened for trading in 2013. The questions that matter most when choosing Kraken are which of its products you can use where you live and how its long record with U.S. regulators affects you. The most serious of those disputes, an SEC lawsuit filed in 2023, was dismissed with prejudice in March 2025.

Key Takeaways

• Kraken is operated by Payward Inc. and led by co-CEOs David Ripley and Arjun Sethi.
• Its products include spot trading, margin trading, futures and perpetual futures, over-the-counter (OTC) trading, staking and APIs. Each one is subject to eligibility and geographic restrictions.
• At entry-tier spot rates, Kraken generally costs more than Binance. Its entry-tier maker fee matches Coinbase Exchange, and its taker fee is higher.
• Kraken has settled with OFAC over Iran sanctions and with the SEC over its U.S. staking program. A second, broader SEC suit was dismissed with prejudice before trial.
• Kraken left New York in 2015 when the state introduced the BitLicense.

What Kraken Is and What It Does

Kraken works as a marketplace. Customers deposit fiat money or crypto into an account. They then place orders that are matched against other users’ orders in Kraken’s order books, and the assets they buy are held in custody by Kraken until they are withdrawn. A Kraken account is therefore a custodial account. Kraken holds the assets on the customer’s behalf, which differs from a self-custody wallet where you control the private keys.

The stated aim is to make it simple to move money between linked bank accounts and digital wallets and to trade digital assets efficiently. For most retail users, that means buying assets such as bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) or solana (SOL) with dollars or euros. For more active traders, it means leveraged products, an API and tools for large orders.

Kraken offers several hundred tradable assets and more than 800 trading pairs. Counts change as assets are listed and delisted, and they vary by product and jurisdiction.

Products and Services

Kraken’s lineup covers most of what a large exchange offers. Each product works differently and carries a different level of risk:

• Spot trading: Spot trading is plain buying and selling of crypto at the current market price, in pairs such as BTC, ETH, USDT and USDC against fiat or other coins. You own the asset you buy.
• Margin trading: Margin traders borrow funds from Kraken to open larger positions than their own balance allows. Borrowing amplifies gains and losses in equal measure, and a position can be closed out if losses erode the collateral behind it.
• Futures and perpetual futures: These are derivatives that track the price of selected crypto pairs without you holding the underlying coin. Kraken added futures in 2019. They are available only to eligible customers in supported regions.
• OTC trading: This is a desk for large transactions, aimed at institutions and high-net-worth individuals who want to trade size without moving the public order book.
• Dark pools: Introduced in 2015, dark pools let large orders be placed without being displayed publicly and executed against orders of similar size.
• Staking: Users lock or commit certain tokens to earn rewards from proof-of-stake networks. What is offered depends heavily on the customer’s jurisdiction, as the SEC section below explains.
• API access: Developers can connect their own trading software and automated strategies to Kraken.
• Charting: Kraken has partnered with TradingView for market charts.

Kraken also ran an NFT marketplace, which has since closed. Purchases, sales, listings and bids ended on November 27, 2024. The marketplace shut down completely after the final withdrawal deadline on February 27, 2025.

Fees

Kraken charges spot trades on a maker-taker basis. A maker order adds liquidity to the order book, for example a limit order that rests at a price away from the market. A taker order removes liquidity by filling immediately against an existing order, as a market order does. Taker rates are typically higher than maker rates, and both fall as 30-day trading volume rises through Kraken’s tiers.

The fee on each side of a trade is trade size × price × fee rate. For a hypothetical example, a $1,000 spot purchase at an assumed 0.40% taker rate costs $4.00 in fees. Selling the same position later incurs a second fee, so a round trip costs about twice the per-side rate. That rate is an illustration only. Check Kraken’s current fee schedule for your tier and order type before trading.

Comparing standard entry-tier spot rates:

• Kraken is generally more expensive than Binance.
• Kraken’s maker fee matches Coinbase Exchange, while its taker fee is higher.
• At higher-volume tiers the rates can match or cross. Results also vary by order type, so a heavy limit-order user and a market-order user can reach different conclusions.

Spot trading fees are not the only costs. Margin positions carry financing charges for the borrowed funds, futures have their own fee structure, and fiat deposits and withdrawals can carry method-specific costs.

Funding Your Account and Withdrawing Money

Kraken supports funding in several fiat currencies, including the U.S. dollar, Canadian dollar, euro and Japanese yen. Which deposit methods you can use depends on your country and account.

To withdraw cash:

1. Go to Transfer and select Withdraw.
2. Choose the currency you want to withdraw.
3. Pick a cash withdrawal method, such as ACH or wire.
4. Add or select the destination bank account.
5. Enter the amount, review the details and confirm.

Crypto withdrawals work the same way in principle, except that the destination is a wallet address on a specific blockchain network. Sending an asset to an address on the wrong network can mean losing the funds. Confirm both the address and the network before you approve a transfer.

Where Kraken Operates

Kraken serves customers in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. It excludes jurisdictions that regulations or sanctions bar it from serving. It reports registrations or licenses in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and the European Economic Area, including Italy, and it has received preliminary regulatory approval in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Different subsidiaries serve different regions, so confirm with the relevant regulator which Kraken entity would hold your account and that it is registered. Also confirm that products such as staking, margin or futures are open to you where you live. New York residents should confirm whether Kraken currently serves the state.

United States

Kraken is available in most U.S. states, but some activities permitted in other countries are restricted for U.S. customers. Staking is the clearest example. In April 2024, Kraken acquired TradeStation Crypto from TradeStation Group, which was wholly owned by the Japanese financial services company Monex Group. TradeStation Crypto is a licensed money transmitter, and the deal was reported as a way to expand Kraken’s U.S. presence.

New York

Kraken exited the New York market in August 2015 in response to the state’s new BitLicense. The company publicly called the framework “abominable” and overly onerous.

History

In 2015, Kraken added margin trading and dark pools, which appealed to both retail traders and professionals. From 2016 it expanded beyond spot markets and beyond the United States. Futures followed in 2019. Kraken announced in 2022 that David Ripley would succeed co-founder Jesse Powell as CEO, and Ripley took over in April 2023. Kraken is now led by co-CEOs Ripley and Arjun Sethi.

Regulatory and Legal Record

New York Attorney General Report (2018)

In September 2018, the New York Attorney General’s office published a report on the integrity of crypto exchanges. It flagged weak customer identity checks at some participating exchanges and broader concerns about market surveillance and anti-money-laundering safeguards. Kraken had declined to take part in the inquiry, so the report made no finding that Kraken itself fell short in those areas. After examining whether certain exchanges accepted trades from within New York, the Attorney General referred Kraken, Binance and Gate.io to the NYDFS over possible violations of the state’s virtual currency rules. Jesse Powell, then CEO, rejected the allegations and compared New York to an “abusive, controlling ex.”

OFAC Sanctions Settlement (2022)

In November 2022, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced a settlement with Kraken over apparent violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran. OFAC said that between October 2015 and June 2019, Kraken processed 826 transactions totaling about $1.68 million for users who appeared to be located in Iran. Kraken denied the allegations but agreed to pay $362,158.70 and to invest an additional $100,000 in sanctions compliance controls.

SEC Staking Settlement (2023)

In February 2023, the SEC charged Kraken with failing to register the offer and sale of its staking-as-a-service program. The agency argued that the program involved investment contracts, offering returns on customers’ tokens that resembled dividends on traditional securities. Kraken denied the allegations but settled for $30 million. It also ended the affected on-chain staking offering for U.S. clients. Staking for non-U.S. clients continued through a separate subsidiary. This settlement is why staking availability on Kraken depends so heavily on where a customer lives.

SEC Exchange Lawsuit (2023 to 2025)

In November 2023, less than a year after the staking settlement, the SEC sued Kraken again. This time it alleged that Kraken operated as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, dealer and clearing agency. The suit also accused Kraken of commingling customer and company funds. Kraken denied the claims, argued that its spot platform is not a securities exchange and said it would defend itself vigorously.

Kraken moved to dismiss in February 2024. On August 23, 2024, a federal judge denied that motion. The ruling allowed the case to proceed but did not decide whether the allegations were true. On March 27, 2025, before any trial, the SEC dismissed the action with prejudice. A dismissal with prejudice means the SEC cannot refile the same claims. No court ever found the allegations proven.

Strengths and Trade-Offs

What works in Kraken’s favor:

• Operating history. Kraken has been trading since 2013 and is among the oldest and largest crypto exchanges in the U.S. and globally.
• Product range in one account. Eligible customers can move from spot buying to margin, futures, OTC and API trading without switching platforms.
• Tools for large orders. OTC trading and dark pools suit traders whose order size would otherwise move the public book.
• Fiat coverage. Funding in USD, CAD, EUR and JPY is useful for customers outside the dollar system.
• Regulatory footprint. Kraken holds registrations or licenses across several major jurisdictions.

Where it gives ground:

• Entry-tier costs. Spot fees at the entry tier are higher than Binance’s, and taker fees are higher than Coinbase Exchange’s.
• Uneven availability. Staking, margin and derivatives depend on jurisdiction and eligibility.
• New York. Kraken left the state in 2015.
• Regulatory history. Two settlements and a dismissed lawsuit have shaped which services Kraken can offer in the U.S.

Risks to Weigh Before Using Kraken

Custody. Assets left on any exchange are held by that company. Your ability to withdraw depends on the exchange’s solvency, controls and continued operation in your jurisdiction. Moving long-term holdings to a wallet you control removes this exposure but adds the responsibility of securing your own keys.

Leverage. Margin and futures positions can be liquidated when losses push collateral below the required level. Losses can exceed what a trader expected because of fast price moves and slippage between a stop’s trigger price and its actual fill price.

Regulatory change. Kraken’s U.S. staking product ended because of an enforcement action, and the New York exit followed a new licensing regime. Rules in any jurisdiction can change which services remain available, sometimes with limited notice.

Market risk. None of Kraken’s features reduce the volatility of the assets themselves. Spot holdings rise and fall with the market regardless of where they are bought.

How we checked Kraken

On 13 November 2026 we opened kraken.com from Tallinn, Estonia. From the homepage footer we followed links to the Compliance Hub and the Terms of Service. Two more links in the page body led us to the xStocks Risk Disclosure and the Equities Disclosures page. The footer names Payward Europe Solutions Limited and Payward Global Solutions Limited, and says both are regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Deeper pages add Kraken Securities LLC, Kraken Adviser LLC and Payward Digital Solutions Ltd., a Bermuda company that offers xStocks to certain clients. No licence numbers appeared on any page we read.

Prices are public. The Kraken Pro fees page says fees “run from 0.40% maker/0.80% taker, to 0.00% maker/0.05% taker across products.” The same page lists a Bitcoin withdrawal fee of 0.000015 BTC. The listings page claims 600+ tokens, while the prices page mentions 200+ cryptocurrencies, so the asset count depends on which page you read. None of this required an account. We did not sign up or place an order, so we cannot say what Kraken asks for before a first trade.

The Central Bank of Ireland register returned Payward Europe Solutions Limited. Its record lists it as a payment institution and as authorised as a Crypto-Asset Service Provider under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. Payward Global Solutions Limited appears in the same register with a crypto-asset service provider authorisation. On FINRA BrokerCheck, Kraken Securities shows CRD 324343 and SEC number 8-71030. Its status is Approved, since 06/10/2024, with 0 disclosures. All three searches ran on 13 November 2026.

Trustpilot showed 3.1/5 from 9,551 reviews when we read it on 13 November 2026. The split is sharp. Of those reviews, 49% are one-star and 32% are five-star. The Wayback Machine’s first capture of the domain dates to 1996-12-24, which may predate the Kraken brand. Some claims remain unchecked. We did not look up the Bermuda licence claimed for Payward Digital Solutions Ltd., and the Irish records we saw gave us no reference numbers to quote.

Who Kraken May Suit

Kraken’s mix of products suits a customer who wants spot crypto purchases and, where eligible, margin, futures or API trading from a single account at a long-established exchange. Its OTC desk and dark pools serve traders placing large orders. Customers who mainly place small market orders and care most about the lowest headline fee may find cheaper entry-tier pricing elsewhere. New York residents need to check whether Kraken can serve them at all. U.S. users interested in staking should expect a narrower offering than Kraken provides to clients abroad.

BitcoinBTC$64,908EthereumETH$1,817SolanaSOL$71.49

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