Kraken Review [2025] - Best all-around cryptocurrency exchange?

Do not know if Kraken is trustworthy and reliable? Do not worry, we will cover everything from supported cryptocurrencies and payment methods to customer support speed in this Kraken review.

By the end of this review, you will have a clear picture of whether you should or should not use Kraken for your cryptocurrency trading.

Kraken, founded by Jesse Powell, in 2011, is one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges still around. Kraken was first designed as an alternative to Mt. Gox exchange, which was the largest cryptocurrency exchange at the time.

Kraken is backed by multiple well-known and trusted investors. Over the multiple investment rounds, Kraken has raised more than $100 million. Kraken has since launching expanded its operations to the United Kingdom and Canada, while its headquarters are still located in the U.S.

Kraken has an OTC (Over-The-Counter) desk for large clients (over $100,000 transaction size) and a margin trading feature. Kraken offers up to 5x leverage for people looking to take more risks. Personally, I prefer Kraken to many margin trading exchanges such as Bitmex, Bybit, and Deribit as I find it more trustworthy.

In addition to those great features, Kraken has a large selection (21) cryptocurrencies available on its trading platform. That is one of the largest selection of cryptocurrencies of all exchanges that support fiat currency (such as USD, EUR) deposits.

Furthermore, Kraken’s customer support is very fast (usually under 12 hours, sometimes a couple of minutes) and Kraken is one of the few exchanges that has never been hacked during its existence.

Kraken's liquidity is also great, they usually do anywhere from $1 to $2 billion in monthly volume, which makes it out to be around $50 to $100 million a day.

Overall, I cannot recommend Kraken enough, it is one of the exchanges that I use the most and I have never had any issues using them.

Although Kraken’s user interface has seen multiple updates over the years and has certainly made an improvement, it is still not the most user-friendly and easy-to-use exchange around in the cryptocurrency world.

In October 2019, Kraken released its mobile applications for the first time. Mobile applications are available for both iOS and Android users. Kraken created two mobile applications with separate functionality: Kraken Pro and Kraken Futures. Kraken Pro is meant for regular spot trading activities, while Kraken Futures application is meant for trading futures on the Kraken trading platform.

If you do not want to install another application on your smartphone, then do not worry - Kraken’s websites are mobile responsive and ready to use by just navigating to their website.

There are 21 different cryptocurrencies available on Kraken’s trading platform:

Kraken accepts deposits and withdrawals using the following payment methods:

In all cases, you can expect deposits and withdrawals to take anywhere from 1 to 5 days.

Kraken’s fees are very competitive and one of the best amongst all cryptocurrency exchanges. Kraken’s transaction fees start at 0.26% and decrease as you do more volume on their trading platform. Transaction fees also vary between different trading pairs and whether your order is a maker or taker.

Maker orders are orders that get immediately filled without going into the order book.

Taker orders are orders that first go into the order book and then get filled.

Kraken is available pretty much worldwide. Kraken only prohibits customers from the following countries of using their platform:

Kraken has been around a long time (founded in 2011) and is backed by many known investors. Kraken has raised over $100 million in investments, which certainly is an impressive number and makes it more trustworthy.

Furthermore, Kraken is one of the few exchanges that has never been hacked. That should say something about Kraken and how seriously they take their security and protecting customer funds.

Kraken is also known for testing its features for many years before finally releasing it to their customers.

Kraken has two different ways to contact their customer support - via e-mail and live chat on their website. I have personally always used the e-mail option and they generally answer in under 12 hours. Sometimes within a couple of minutes after sending them an e-mail.

What's more, Kraken offers a dedicated account manager for bigger clients (over $100,000 transactions) that can help you set-up OTC (over-the-counter) trades.

Kraken truly is one of the top exchanges in the cryptocurrency world - I cannot recommend them enough. Their whole team is very professional and everything works as you would expect. I even prefer Kraken’s margin trading over all of the best margin trading exchanges such as Bitmex, Bybit, and Deribit.

I have personally never had any issues with Kraken or their customer support.