Kraken.com Review 2021 – Scam or Not?
Kraken is a recognized cryptocurrency exchange that has been offering their trading services since 2011. The platform currently allows users to buy and sell more than 90 digital assets agains USD and other fiat currencies such as GBP, EUR, USD, CAD, JPY, CHF and AUD. Not only you can directly buy all these cryptocurrencies but you can also profit from their margin and futures trading services, which allow you to leverage your positions up to 5x and 50x, respectively. Through enhanced security features, users can safely trust their funds while enjoying a smart trading experience with low fees. Based in Chicago, Kraken is still one of the few crypto exchange platforms that offer Bitcoin margin trading with for US residents, although their services are not limited to this region and can be used in multiple countries worldwide.
More than 8 million users are actively using Kraken and is supported by several big institutions like Blockchain Capital, Tribe Capital, Humming Ventures, Digital Currency group, among many other financial giants that make it easier for users to trust Kraken’s services.
Review Contents
- Verification
- Fees
- Trading
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Exchange Security
- Supported Payment Methods
- Passive income
- Market tracking features
- Supported Countries
- FAQ – Frequently asked questions about Kraken
- Conclusion
Kraken is one of the largest and oldest Bitcoin exchange in terms volume and liquidity. After trying to help MtGox recover from the hacking attack, Jesse Powell, a serial entrepreneur decided to offer the world the first professional BTC exchange – that’s how Kraken was born. The company was founded in San Francisco on 28th of July, 2011 and remains based in California.
You can follow updates related to Kraken’s services on their own blog, this is where they provide an overview of new features and services. On the social media channels, like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin Kraken frequently engage with their followers and share stories from the industry. Jesse Powell, CEO of Kraken presents and explains services and concept himself in video messages and often engages with the public. In Kraken’s podcast, Jesse talks with various guests about interesting topics beyond blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
The platform is an excellent choice for European users, but after a number of acquisitions in the last couple of years, their focus has shifted from Europe to Worldwide market. Since 2017 they support USD deposits and they have introduced futures trading in early 2019.
Kraken.com has all the content on its website in English – even more, you can choose between US and British English to best suit your needs. Furthermore, the site is available in eight other languages, including Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Chinese and Japanese (even though Japan is currently not on the supported countries list).
Verification
The verification process is straightforward, but Kraken can be a bit strict when it comes to the higher tier verifications. There are four tiers. Tier 1 take only a few minutes and performed automatically if everything is submitted corretly. It can take longer if the application requires manual review. Tier 2 abd 3 verification usually takes a couple of days to complete. Tier 4 (corporate verification) take currently more than 5 days due to increased demand.
Kraken doesn’t allow deposits, withdrawals or trading without verification. Here’s how the user’s limits increase with tiers:
Tier 1 (Starter) – Deposits and withdrawals are available in digital currency only. Trading, on the other hand, can be performed with digital as well as fiat currencies. Tier 1 verification requires:
- Full name
- Date of birth
- Country of residence and physical address
- Phone number verification
Tier 2 (Intermediate) – Deposits, withdrawals, and trading in digital currency are available. Margin trading is also available for verified accounts. Intermediate verification requires:
- Valid government ID
- Recent proof of residence
- Occupation
- Social Security Number (for US clients)
Tier 3 (Pro) – fiat currency deposits and withdrawals are available, and the funding limits, API call limites are way higher than in the intermediate verification. Tier 3 verification also allows margin trading. The verification requires a KYC to be filled out and signed.
Tier 4 (Pro Corporate) – Corporate account verification requires contacting support and providing company specific documents to support the application.
Deposit and withdrawal limits are sorted per tiers:
Tier 1 (Starter) – Fiat deposits and withdrawals are not possible. Deposits in digital currencies don’t have a limit, while withdrawals are limited to $5000 per day and $150,000 per month. Verification for Tier 1 requires some basic personal information without providing any supporting documentation.
Tier 2 (Intermediate) -Deposits and withdrawals in FIAT currency are both limited to $100,000 per day and $500,000 per month. Cryptocurrency withdrawals are limited to $500,000 per day and $15M per month. The verification requirement for Tier 2 is a government-issued passport and a proof of address..
Tier 3 (Pro) – Fiat deposits and withdrawals are limited to $10M daily and $100M monthly. Withdrawals in digital currencies are limited to $10M per day and $300M per month. There is no deposit limit for Pro users. Tier 3 verification requires and additional KYC questionnaire to be filled out and signed.
Kraken accepts the following fiat currencies:
- US dollar (USD)
- Canadian dollar (CAD)
- GB Pound (GBP)
- Euro (EUR)
- Japanese Yen (JPY)
- Swiss Francs (CHF)
And users can trade these cryptocurrencies:
ZEC, YFI, WAVES, USDC, UNI, TRX, GRT, XTZ, USDT, TBTC, SNX, STORJ, SC, XRP, QTUM, DOT, PAXG, OXT, OMG, OCEAN, NANO, XMR, XLM, LTC, LSK, KNC, KSM, KEEP, KAVA, ICX, GNO, FLOW, FIL, ETH, ETC, ETH2, EOS, MLN, EWT, DOGE, MANA, DASH, DaiDAI, CRV, ATOM, COMP, LINK, ADA, BTC, BCH, BAT, BAL, REP, REPV2, ANT, ALGO, AAVE
Possible trading pairs and fee schedule for each pair can be found here.
Kraken Fees Analysis
When it comes to fees, Kraken has reduced its prices drastically in order to stay ahead of the competition and currently is one of the cheapest trading platforms. The exchange charges the following fiat withdrawal fees:
EUR SEPA Withdrawal – EEA countries only €0.09
GBP SWIFT Wire Transfer – 0.125% with £35 minimum fee
USD SWIFT Withdrawal – all other countries 0.125% with $35 minimum fee
USD FedWire – available in the United States, $5 flat fee
CAD EFT – Canada only, 0.25%
JPY SWIFT – worldwide, 0.125% with $35 minimum fee
Cryptocurrency withdrawal fees and minimum amounts are different between each coin. Here are some examples, always refer to Kraken’s updated fee schedule for the current withdrawal fees.
- Bitcoin ฿0.0005
- Ether Ξ0.005
- Ether Classic ξ0.00500
- Ripple Ʀ0.02000
- Litecoin Ł0.02000
- Dogecoin Ð2.00
- Stellar STR 0.00002
- Zcash ⓩ0.00010
- Augur (REP) Ɍ0.01000
When it comes to deposits, Kraken charges flat fees for the majority of transfers. ACH and Fedwire cost 5 USD, SWIFT deposits cost 35 USD / EUR and SEPA transfers are free if sent through Fidor bank. Most of the deposits performed in cryptocurrency are free, except for the smaller, less liquid coins. You can find the updated fee schedule for crypto deposits here. For some coins, Kraken also charges a small address setup fee.
Trading Fees
Trading fees are charged for both maker and taker, and they start at 0.16% for the maker and 0.26% for the taker. As the trading volume increases, fees percentage steadily drops all the way to 0.00% for the maker and 0.10% for the taker.
Futures fees are charged between -0.020% (instant rebate for makers) and 0.075% for takers.
For margin trading, Kraken charges an opening fee of 0.01%-0.02% and a rollover fee of 0.01%-0.02% after every 4 hours until the leveraged position is open in the trading platform.
Trading
Kraken offers less than ten different cryptocurrencies for trading, but it is possible to make direct trades between all available pairs. Together with five fiat currencies, the exchange gives enough trading options for everyone.
For those who are looking to have maximum control over their trades, Kraken remains the best choice.
Margin trading is not available on all of the currency pairs, but only on the following most liquid altcoins:
Augur, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Monero, Ripple, Tether.
You can trade these coins with margin against the USD and EUR or against Bitcoin and Ethereum. The amount of leverage depends on the coin, which varies between 2x and 5x (Bitcoin and Ethereum).
The exchange recently introduced futures trading where you can trade on leverage up to 50x. Futures trading is available for verified users only outside of the US. Perpetual futures are available for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin and quoted in USD.
Users can use various order types to manage risk like limit orders, advanced orders with predefined triggers, leveraged positions, margin trading as well as short selling.
XBT is Kraken’s short for Bitcoin, used instead BTC.
Ease of Use
Kraken software is highly rated for both professional and beginning cryptocurrency trading. The interface offers simple, intermediate and advanced templates, helping beginners to get their bearings and at the same time allowing expert traders to use all the advanced options they need.
The trading platform has an official iOS application and an Android application which include all the features you need for trading. Note that you need to connect your API key to the app, so familiarize yourself with the setup instructions before installing the app. Kraken Futures plafrom is currently running in a different applicaion for mobile devices, you can find the app in the Google Play store here or join the beta testing of the iOS app here.
You can also use trade.kraken.com directly from your mobile as the platform is fully mobile-optimized already.
Support
Kraken offers 24/7 support, with instant email and chat responses. They are also active on social media. The support used to be low rated as it sometimes took a couple of days to react, so some people were forced to act like this guy couple of years ago to post on Reddit to get heard. Other than that, no serious complaints were posted.
Since then Kraken opened its own Reddit thread where they try to respond to user queries public where applicable.
Kraken also runs a unique call back system. You can leave them a message over a ticket on the platform and they call you back on your previously registered phone number. They do not have a direct hotline to avoid scam. The hours of operations are between Monday to Friday, from 12:00 to 24:00 UTC time. Note however that the phone support is not able to help in case of issues with verification, login or trading, can only provide general updates and help related to crypto deposits.
Kraken.com Security Check
Kraken is probably one of the most secure online cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. In the aftermath of the Mt. Gox collapse, Kraken was the first company to create a cryptographically verified proof of reserves which shows that the exchange holds 100% of customer funds, as it should. They hold the majority of funds offline in cold storage. Their servers are held in secure facilities with armed guards, retina scanners, and top-notch video surveillance.
The company has two-factor authentication, PGP encryption for email communication and global setting lock, which prevents any account changes in a particular time period.
So far Kraken hasn’t been hacked, but there were cases where careless users got their accounts hacked due to lack of 2fa security.
But even if their security is top notch, it happened to a lot of traders that kraken has capacity problems when there is a lot of volatility in the market. That is problem when you want to react quickly to a market change or you want to buy/sell but the exchange is not responding.
Supported Payment Methods
- Wire Transfer.
- SEPA.
- SWIFT.
- CHAPS.
- FPBS/BACS.
- Osko.
- Interac-e transfer.
- Domestic wire transfer (Credit Union Atlantic).
- In-person cash or debit.
- Signet.
- Silvergate Exchange Network.
- FedWire.
Passive Income
Spot and derivatives trading is not the only way you can profit from your investments in Kraken, as the platform offers a staking section where users can lock their coins for as long as you want in order to earn interests on your holdings. This will give holders passive income on coins that otherwise would be just sitting there, making it possible for most users to mantain a healthy portfolio management. It is also known that compounding earnings is one of the best ways to grow one’s capital.
Kraken will let you stake the following coins:
- ALGO (4.75% yearly rewards).
- ADA (4-6% yearly rewards).
- ATOM (7.5% yearly rewards).
- ETH (4-7% yearly rewards).
- FLOW (6-9% yearly rewards).
- KAVA (23% yearly rewards).
- KSM (18% yearly rewards).
- DOT (12% yearly rewards).
- SOL (6.5% yearly rewards).
- XTZ (4.7% yearly rewards).
- BTC (0.25% yearly rewards).
- EUR (1.5% yearly rewards).
- USD (2% yearly rewards).
Users need to buy the selected assets or fund their Kraken accounts with any of these coins to start earning passive income. kraken works with on-chain and off-chain staking (on-chain staking works with PoS protocols such as XTZ, while off-chain assets while be staked with Kraken’s internal programs).
Market tracking features
Analyzing the crypto market is all about having the knowledge and the right tools to spot the big opportunities. Knowing this, Kraken created a market tracking tool called Cryptowatch, which works in crypto exchange platforms through their API keys and covers over 700 markets (trading pairs).
Cryptowatch has optimum indicators and real-time market trend tracking that, combined with a SMS notification system, aims to provide users sharp market analysis skills. It should be noted that unlike the charts, APIs and public REST, custom notification systems are not a free service.
Supported Countries
Kraken offers its services to more than 180 countries worldwide on 4 continents, including Europe, America, Asia, and Australia. There are only a handful of countries that are currently not supported.
Kraken does not provide services to residents in the following countries:
- Afghanistan
- Cuba
- Guinea-Bissau
- Iran
- Iraq
- Japan
- North Korea
- Tajikistan
- Washington and New York states in the US
FAQ – Frequently asked questions about Kraken
Can you buy bitcoin on Kraken?|Yes, you can buy bitcoin directly on Kraken using bank wire transfers. In order to buy bitcoin on Kraken you need to verify your account first and then you can deposit into your account and place an order for buying bitcoin. Note that bitcoin is represented with XBT symbol on Kraken.
Is Kraken better than Coinbase?|In terms of fees Kraken definitely beats Coinbase. Coinbase charges a flat fee of $1.99 +3.99% for transactions with credit card. In contrast, Kraken only charges 0.26% trading fee for buying bitcoin. Although the fees are better on Kraken you might need to consider other aspects as well: Coinbase is more suitable for beginner users and also allows credit card purchases which are currently not an option on Kraken.
Can a US citizen use Kraken?|Yes, most US citizens can use Kraken as the company has complied with local regulations. Kraken, however, does not provide services to residents of Washington (WA) and New York (NY) states. Additionally, residents of New Hampshire (NH) and Texas (TX) states are not allowed to deposit, hold, trade EUR denominated trading pairs.
Has Kraken been hacked?|No, Kraken hasn’t been hacked so far. Although some individual users reported that their accounts have been compromised due to the lack of 2FA security, in general, the exchange did not suffer any major security breach. Still, Jesse Powell, the CEO of Kraken often warns the public to avoid storing crypto on exchanges.
Who owns Kraken?|Kraken is owned by Payward Inc., a San Fransico based startup, founded by Jesse Powell. Payward Inc. is private company, registered in the United States, California and was founded in 2011. Before founding Kraken, Jesse Powell ran other online businesses in the gaming industry, he is also passionate about art.
Is Kraken good for trading bitcoin?|Yes, Kraken is an exchange where you can trade bitcoin and several other cryptocurrencies. Their fees are reasonably low and you can also try margin trading at Kraken. Currently there are more than 30+ different trading pairs are availabe on Kraken exchange.
How do I withdraw USD from Kraken?|You can withdraw money from Kraken using bank wire transfer only. There are a couple of options you can choose from if you want to withdraw USD from Kraken depending on your geographic location. US clients can opt for ACH and FedWire, while the rest of the world can use SWIFT transfers. The fees vary between 5 USD to 35 USD depending on the amount and the processing time. Note that all first-time deposits go through a temporary 72-hour lockdown period and you can only withdraw funds after that. In order to withdraw funds from Kraken, go to withdraw in your account and select the option you need.
Does Kraken require an ID?|Not necessarily. When registering at Kraken, you need to provide them an email, your full name, date of birth, phone number and physical address, however, for the starter account this information is not verified by documents. You can start using the platform with cryptocurrency deposits right after registration. Although the crypto deposits are unlimited, without an ID verification, you can only withdraw 5000 USD worth of cryptocurrency on a daily basis, and 150 000 USD during a month. There is no option to use Kraken with fiat currency without submitting ID.
How can I get verified on Kraken?|There are two levels of verification available now on Kraken. For the intermediate verification, you need to provide a valid government-issued ID card (like passport, driving license, national identity card) and a proof of residence document aged less than 3 months (this can be a bank statement or utility bill). US clients also need to provide an SSN or an ITIN. In certain countries, you will be also asked to provide a confirmation photo of you holding your ID card. For the highest level of verification, on the pro level beyond the above-listed documents, you will be asked to fill out a KYC questionnaire.
How long does Kraken withdrawals take?|Withdrawal time on Kraken depends on the type of funding method you have chosen. Generally speaking, you should receive your withdrawal within 5 business days. The quickest options are FedWire transfers and SEPA transfers which usually take 0-3 days, while SWIFT transactions can take up to 5 business days to be processed.
Can I short bitcoin on Kraken?|Yes, you can short bitcoin on Kraken, so it is possible to sell bitcoin on Kraken without actually owning it. In the case of an XBT/EUR short position, Kraken sells XBT from their margin pool for EUR on the market. In order to settle this short position, you need to have sufficient XBT on your acount to cover the volume of the order opening.
How do you trade with leverage on Kraken?|You can trade with leverage on Kraken using intermediate and advanced order forms. Note that currently not all supported coins can be traded on margin, only a selected number of cryptocurrencies, including Augur, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Monero, Ripple and Tether. Margin trading is available against the USD, EUR and XBT and in some cases against ETH. To be able to open a leveraged position, you must hold enough balance on your account to satisfy the margin requirement. Don’t forget that during margin trading you also have to pay the margin rollover fee for open positions beyond the usual trading fees.
What are the fees on Kraken?|Kraken applies a maker-taker fee model, where with the increase in volume the fees are decreasing. The standard maker-taker fee is 0.16%-0.26% up to 50000 USD monthly trading volume. For margin trades, Kraken charges a margin opening fee and a margin rollover fee after every 4 hours when the trade is open. Depending on the chosen payment method, Kraken also charges deposit fees for some type of SWIFT and ACH transfers.
Can you use a credit card to buy bitcoin on Kraken?|No, credit cards are not among the supported methods on Kraken for buying bitcoin. The reason for Kraken not allowing credit card purchases is Kraken does not want to risk any fraudulent deposits coming from unauthorized credit card usage. You can still buy bitcoin using bank wire transfers at Kraken.
Kraken Review Conclusion
The Kraken is a real industry leader, and one of the best bitcoin exchanges today.
Pros
- Low fees
- Excellent liquidity in both USD and EUR markets
- Margin and futures trading supported
- Only exchange platform selected to support investigation into Mt. Gox’s stolen Bitcoins
- Stable regulatory compliance towards the government under which it operates
- Plenty of tradeable cryptocurrencies
- Great security features
- Friendly interface and a lot of information about the exchange
Cons
- Sometimes has uptime problems when market gets hot.
- Verifications take time.
- Unlike many other Bitcoin exchange platforms, it does not work as crypto wallet.
- Although it is not solely a Bitcoin exchange for US, Kraken has a lot of restrictions for a wide range of countries, specially for credit card purchases.
- Compared to other exchange companies, Kraken’s services are quite limited.
If you’re looking for a safe exchange with low fees (especially if you’re in Europe), then Kraken is an obvious choice. Post your experience with Kraken exchange in the comments, we would love to hear from you.
Go to kraken.com
Orders constantly failing….Customer service never responds. Worst exchange out there. Stay away!
KRAKEN is useless if you want to day trade. Their Interface is easy to understand, but the back ground just does not work fast enough: If you want to trade long term, you might use it. Fees are on the low side – so it is a great place to get some XRP, BTC, LTC or whats-o-ever.
But do not expect them to be quick, in any way, especially not in executing orders. If the market is normal or calm – things go fairly well. But if it gets volatile in Bitcoins – like the last days End of Oct/Nov 2017 when BTC went from $5800 to $7400+, Kraken failed desperately concerning their order books and their goofy interface. You place an order and it takes minutes to get your order in – Click Submit and you have no idea what is going on in the background. Even if you have an other window open with all of your orders (where I usually desperately click the REFRESH button) you do not see whether it got in, nor if got filled at all.
This usually takes minutes – then it goes back to the new order window with the enlightening message “that your order MIGHT HAVE!!! failed. They do not even know if it failed or not. Then you go back and resubmit it, since it never showed up in your “current order Window”.
This can go on and on and on – until, all of a sudden, you find out, you just sold three bitcoins instead of just one. Then you will be happy, I bet you will be very happy! And of course all of them at a price that was real 12 Minutes ago…
Rubbish! Today I tried to delete some old LTD addresses and in order to send 30 LTC to GDAX.
The whole thing took me about two hours. Kraken’s confirming emails took up to half an hour to arrive – in the mean time my GDAX receiving address had expired.
Just to make clear that I know what I am talking about: During the last five months I traded over $500’000.00 on kraken- Had to have a lot of patience, especially the last 3 weeks (Oct 2017).
Now it is enough! Can’t take it anymore and moved. Will just use KRAKEN for long term trading and because it seems to be one of the safest (unfortunately slowest) place. And because you can trade a lot more other stuff like Ripple, Dash, Monero etc etc… But never use it when tings have to be done FAST! I warned you! (dated Nov 2 2017)
Good luck!
16th of October 2017 I made payment into Kraken’s corresponding bank and a week later I created a ticket to follow up why my funds havent yet reflected into the Kraken Acc. They replied a day later saying they couldn’t locate my deposit. Another week goes by and they emailed saying it looked like my deposit arrived without the proper referencing to assign it to my account automatically.
Ok no problem I thought. The funds have been located and they assured me few days later it will be into my account. Well it’s now 1 November and still nothing.
During this time the bitcoin price has risen 1000USD so now because of their incompetence and delay it defetes the purpose of purchasing a bitcoin and I am sure as hell I will not be compensated for their poor survice.
Very poor trading engine, in high volume moments order placing or cancelling can take up to 20 attempts. Also sometimes you got an error for order but after few minutes order is placed and you end up with 2 orders – this can lead to losses if you trade on margin.
Just look on twitter for their customers pissed of all the time.
Avoid at all costs!
I followed the entire registration process for Tier 3 and they do not accept Belgian ID card with a clear ID picture on it!
Then they say they do not see the edges on the picture although you can see the table it was on it.
After 4 retries they asked an additional ID picture confirmation although I do not live in Germany or Japan as stated on their website so I quit.
Awful exchange. Changed rollover fee currency on open positions from USD to BTC without my consent which eroded my equity and brought me close to margin call. Had to add more BTC to keep call from happening, but they took over a week to clear the funds. Bad customer service all around. System is glitchy and orders often fail. I almost never make profit on this exchange. On other exchanges I either make decent profit or I am, at least, able to absorb losses, but on Kraken I’ve only ever taken terrible losses. Like Jordan said, if you want to lose your money, go there.
Ridiculous fees. I thought this was a decent exchange because they are handling the mtgox distribution. STAY AWAY
Kraken is fine when everything happen to work, or while you’re not doing anything complicated, like wiring them your money! Their way of handling your deposit, make you feel like you’re just rolling a dice, and they MAY or MAY NOT give you back your own money.
Also, a note to US residents: they’ve (quietly) introduced a combined, annual deposit/withdraw limit on US resident’s personal account, regardless what your tier’s at. What’s worse, they let you deposit money, without bother to tell you they won’t take them. Then, you have to spend weeks, waiting for them to cancel and refund your transfer.
Following is a recount of a horror story that had just happened to me:
* After making a $25,000 deposit and waited for 4 days without seeing it, I contacted Kraken support. It was only at this point, I was told about the new annual limit.
* After casually told me about the change with an easy air of “it just happen to be so”, I was told to wait for the deposit to be refunded.
* I was flatly told that there would not be any compensation, for the wire fee, or for the delay and anxiety resulted from this mishap that was not due to any fault of my own.
* This “refund” process went to nowhere for 14 straight days! That’s two weeks of me waiting and frequently messaging their support to help.
* Then adding insult to injury, a few days later yet, I was told, their funding partner required “proof of source of funds” from me, in order to receive the refund. The line which I found particularly incensing: “Compliance requires us to show you have a source of income through employment and/or other income that is reported on a tax return”.
* Seriously??? If compliance requires them to report the transaction to regulatory or law enforcement agencies, that’s fine with me, but at least return what came out of my bank account back to me. But by this time, I have adopted the mentality of a prisoner who was trapped into this situation, duly complied to this request.
* After that, another 4 days went by, before I finally received my refund. That’s 3 weeks after my initial deposit.
So in conclusion, my advice is, if you only need a few trades done, and not dealing with a large amount, then chances are, nothing bad will happen to you.
If you ever dealing with fiat, that involve traditional financial institutions, it’s a little over their head. Pick a different exchange to do that.
I am “Yurik” from Sep. 29 above. It is now Oct. 20. I do not have my money yet. That’s over 1 month since I wired in over $1,500.
I did receive a couple of responses to my emails. The new rep, Damien, is much nicer and is at least apologetic. However, he still has not provided any estimate of how long it will take; and has also failed to reply to my email from 3 days ago where I ask the simple question, which is: how long is the backlog; and how fast are they going through cases in the backlog?
Damien himself has said that there is a large backlog of problems from around the time when I wired in my money. So it should be possible to answer my question.
I am patient, but eventually I’m going to have to sue them, if only as a matter of principle. I’ve never seen anything like this.
WORST platform and customer support I have ever seen.
When the market starts to move, the orders you submit keep failing.
Today, I tried to cover BTC short position but my orders would not go through. I contacted support, but of course their support staff takes days if not weeks to respond, so it was of no use.
In short, I’d stay away, because even if you can trade well, you will still have to deal with their horrible technology and non-existent customer service. Going to be withdrawing my money and Will never trade with account.
Please not use Kraken. Since August they have a lot of outage. More time is not possible to sell or buy. i passed more than 1 hour to sell my BTX.
It’s frustrating and not acceptable.
Bye!
This exchange is the worst, I tried it for the first time and lost $500 on it right away because this side is either down or would not let you do orders for an hour, it is a nightmare to deal with them, STAY AWAY !!!
I am surprised there are still people who uses them, after reading bad reviews I thought that it may be work of competition and decided to try it, boy did I learned a lesson, $500 lost for trying KRAKEN !!!
It is very strange to read so many bad reviews. I signed up an account with Kraken two weeks ago. I’m new to trading. Everything works fine, so far, easy for beginners. im in the eurozone, so for me it’s good. first time made the deposit, to try, but it took 5 days, it was my fault, didn’t entered ref. n. Next time deposit got through in 2 hours, I think it is fast.
This site is a joke. They round out Bitcoin to 0.00000 decimal places. So what happens to all the transactions submitted to the site in the last 3 decimals 0.00000xxx? They are keeping it for themselves! This isn’t a lot of money from one person but it is from a lot of people! Also, most exchanges don’t charge a fee to withdraw bitcoin but Kraken does! These guys are thieves and I’d avoid this exchange at all cost.
Kraken is terrifying. You should think LONG and hard before you try to mess with these guys.
Well, I signed up around Sep 1, 2017. Verification was reasonably fast — a couple of days to verify various documents including U.S. driver’s license.
Deposits (U.S. wire, normally an operation that takes at most 1 day anywhere else) were like this:
Sep 1: Deposit of about $1,500. 1 business day. Done!
Sep 15: Deposit of similar sum, $1,500. Done EXACTLY the same way; just the amount and reference ID changed, per instructions.
5 business days – nothing. Filed ticket. 7 days later – first ticket response. I quote:
“Thank you very much for reaching out to us. Unfortunately, due to a temporary technical difficulty with USD funding for US residents, we will be unable to address your issue for an undetermined period of time. All other site functions are working as intended. Please let me know if there is any other assistance you need. We will update you as soon as this current issue is resolved.”
Note, among other horrendous aspects (“undetermined period of time”? REALLY?), that there is not so much as an apology.
I replied asking these questions. I quote: “`- Is it possible to fund the account now, or will any other U.S. wires at this point similarly get eaten for an unknown amount of time? – When will you next update me (and many others, from the look of it online) about the status of this situation? Can I expect weekly updates? Can you at least tell me WHAT is being done to address the fact that my $XXXX is irretrievably gone? Please: Any information beyond “undetermined period of time” would be welcome.“`
That last bit was 3 days ago. No reply to that yet. It has been 13 days days since the attempted withdrawal. My money is gone from by bank and nowhere near my Kraken account.
I have requested a withdrawal of my funds. Domestic bank wire. The request was pending for 5 days, I ask why is it pending? The next day I check my account it says transfer successful. 24 hours pass and no money returned. I ask where is my money? We will get back with you. 48 hours pass. I ask again where is my money? We will get back with you again they say. 72 hours has passed and still no money. At this time I believe Kraken has stolen my money and I will never will never get it back. Domestic Bank Wire should only take 24 hours.
Hello
I’m shocked for this comments.
I opened account last week and all is fine. Verification to tier 3 quick, no problem.
I made 2 SEPA transfer and I got them the day after.
Bought some coins without problem and did withdrawals to wallet without problem.
I’m italian but I live in poland.
Hope this helps
I use Kraken as my only exchange. It is convenient for me, because it is the largest EUR exchange and has a bank account in my country. It is slow though. More often than not buying/selling orders do not go through – no reason is given. I expect their servers are just overloaded. Stop Loss orders have been discontinued. Their live trading chart is unstable and at times just stops working making trading impossible. The exchange also suffers serious lags. All this makes actually trading frustrating and time consuming. If there was a better exchange for euro markets I would try that. I do wish Kraken would invest in improving its systems and service. the fact that they don’t makes me feel that they don’t view cryptos as a long-term venture.
For a research project I deposited 60 euro in a kraken account on Monday. After three days I noticed that it was on hold, after which I contacted customer service. No reply, I filled in the google doc. No reply, emailed a new ticket and got a reply. They said my name on kraken was different from bank. if i could explain.
Now my bank says all names full written, including baptising names. Kraken shows first letter of baptising letters. So i sent my ID, I sent my bank screens. Reply? Our finance department will get back to you. And then silence. Obviously they do not work in weekend.
Now I have worked in payments for many years, and I know KYC procedures. For a deposit of 60 euro, including ID, and up to tier 3 verified this is bonkers. Especially the fact that there is no, or half a reply.
Of course it was good that I could not buy during the drop of last week, but since this market is so volatile kraken should be up to fast solutions and replies. Even if they would have said, we are sorry but we cannot accept your deposit.
Kraken is big SCAM,
he stole all the money from the my account
In Italy we are many people in this situations, also in Canada end Australia
the only answer they gave me was: we are sorry but we were attacked on the site and lost several accounts. INCREDIBLE. tell me if this is not a theft
sorry for my english
Kraken Sux Ass
Nothing works well.
Nothing.
Stay away.
I am a long time trader in Kraken and I want to justify that all the negative review you may read here are in my opinion are written by People who are connected with other exchanges. They want to make negative review trying to destroy Kraken’s reputation. I been trading with Kraken for years and never have any issues, frankly saying the only issue I can say right now is that when you are making orders it don’t usually go through and you need to try repeatedly, thus happens this week. I hope Kraken will address the issue, the new beta graph is great but it can’t be use to make orders for direct trading. For me Kraken is one of the best and trusted trading site.
customer care = absolutely disgusting . please please, stay away from this. So much time waiting for my deposit..still ON HOLD, and no answers. sounds as a big scam.
Tried to buy Bitcoin for my money yesterday and today, but it keeps on rejecting my orders for insufficient funds even though i try amounts way below my dollar holdings. Anybody knows this problem??
Very bad experience. No access to account/deposits. No response from customer service besides some bogus excuses.
Would be happy to see somebody exposes this crap service and returns money to rightful owners.
One word: FRAUDS
Fees are low, simple trading orders work fine that’s for sure. But that’s the only positive experience until now.
Depositing money seems more difficult.
First deposit took 2 days, fine…For the second one, I am now on day 4. Kraken says that a SEPA deposit may take 5 working days (which is ridiculous as deposits/withdrawals from my ‘traditional’ bank and trading platform does not take more than 1 business day)
Their verification system suggests that they have to comply with regulatory demands. I am sure that most ‘traditional’ banks or trading platforms will receive serious feedback from regulatory organizations when they consistently are unable to process a simple SEPA payment within 1-2 days.
I repeatedly asked Kraken as well as their partner Fidor bank about their regulatory status. Until now, no answer. But that seems to be the standard nowadays…
Does anyone know an exchange/trading platform within the eurozone that is under regulatory control?
I’ve been trading with them for about a month, and have spent quite a bit of time and energy working on their API. Here are my findings:
The good:
1) Opening, upgrading, and funding an account is pretty easy. Takes about a week.
2) Support is prompt, and has answered my questions within a couple business days. (Not counting their bug reporting email, which gets completely ignored).
The bad:
1) Their server craps out in all but the quietest of market conditions. I have a counter on my application that tell me the percentage of API requests out of the last 100 that made it through successfully. This will drop to 40% at times.
2) I have been unable to actually place any orders at times. Not only during volatile markets, but also during moderately quiet ones. The server will just refuse to speak with you. You might be able to log into their site, but good luck actually getting an order into the order book. I’d say this happens half the time I’m interested in trading. If you’ve got a position on, you are at the mercy of the market until things cool off.
3) I have been unable to cancel orders at times. It takes about 15-20 tries in a row sometimes. I’m stuck in one of those loops right now, which is what prompted me to write this review.
4) Sometimes your resting orders will mysteriously vanish into thin air. You can have a limit order sitting there for hours, and then the market moves to fill, and it’s just…gone.
5) They had to cancel their stop order types, because their servers weren’t actually filling them. I programmed my own, but that doesn’t help if their server decides to go sulk.
6) The expect you to program their API functions using a live account. There is no sandbox. Pretty sketchy.
In conclusion, if you are an active trader, you have ZERO chance of being successful here because you won’t be able to even place half your orders in time. The slippage that happens because of that will be overwhelming. Whoever programmed their order matching engine is unfortunately completely completely out of their depth. I’m honestly surprised that they still have any customers left given these problems.
hi
the support answers me regulary during the day
just error messages by buying and selling regullary 4/5star
Do they even care about their clients? Two weeks ago wired money to Kraken and they still havent posted to my account. After many emails, Kraken finally wanted the wire transfer details. Sent the details and no reply and its been almost a week. Kraken stated it takes 1 to 5 business days for a fiat USD money transfer to post not two weeks. This is highly unprofessional. I dont understand at all how they expect to keep customers. It should take them no more than 1 or 2 days to check the transfer. Frankly its ridiculous.
Don’t even think about sending money to Kraken if you’re from the UK. They knowingly accept GBP deposits when you can’t actually do anything at all with GBP on their exchange. You can’t buy cryptocurrency with it or convert it to any other currency. Then they charge you £60 for a withdrawal. Appalling attitude and one of the reasons these exchanges need regulating.
I understand people have issues with Kraken but I have had the opposite experience. Kraken support ALWAYS e-mails me back within 24 hours, usually less then 12 hours. I was verified within a week from Tier 1 – Tier 3. I have made multiple wire transfers and they show up within a day and the platform has been running smooth for the last week with the changes they made.
I recommend this site/exchange but obviously everyone has a different experience.
Hmmm,
Sorry to hear this about Kraken. It seems like a big big warning to me since I am in the trier-3 verification, and just sent them a mail for verification 4.
Maybe I should consider another exchange. I trade futures and it’s going pretty well even though markets hardly move eversince Trump came to office (except for the past few days). Thanks for the review and warnings, I think I’ll take my money somewhere else.
Kraken, so many bad reviews in here and you guys act as if you don’t even care???
Good luck people!!!
Unfortunately the same as others have posted. Paid wire transfer fees when depositing and lost another 14% in ‘other’ fees from the deposit and took almost 2 weeks for the deposit to appear. Verification is on par with most other exchanges, but in the time I’ve been waiting for my deposit, I’ve deposited, invested and turned a profit on another exchange. Requested a withdrawal this morning and don’t expect to see it anytime soon. However when I requested an update on my deposit their support answered me within 12 hours, quite surprised.
I read the reviews posted here and just do not get it as my experience is so much different.
For me, Kraken is a fantastic exchange which is dependable and provides excellent support.
Am I then only customer who has a good experience? I doubt it. The way it worked for me:
I registered April 15th 8am CET, enabled 2FA, put in my information for Tier2 which was confirmed at 9.12am. Fast enough right? Made some small BTC deposit to check out the services before going for Tier 3.
On Monday I put in the additional Tier3 required information which took 7 days end to end to get verified.
My first submission was declined as I cropped the ID scan a bit too tight. Support wrote: “..We must be able to see your entire ID including the edges…”
OK, this was my fault as the requirement to see the edges was clearly stated. I uploaded a new document full A4 and got verified in an hour.
My mistake: I had transferred more than the tier 2 limit to Kraken in the mean time to get some XRP. These funds were now on hold for 24 hours after Tier 3 verification.
Even though this was annoying, I should have known better not to send before verification but I expected the transfer to take at least a day and not 2 hours.
However, the support team was great, I explained to support that I really needed to buy something asap after which support transferred to finance and the finance unlocked the situation in a few hours so I could buy my XRP before it mooned. 🙂
Perhaps it was a slow day or a slow time, perhaps it was the amount transferred, perhaps I was lucky but the support experience was great.
In any case, ever since April I make a substantial deposit each month (SEPA transfer). My bank transfers the money to the German bank of Kraken and it takes about an hour for Kraken to show the balance credited.
When I withdraw, it is as fast as the deposit. Crypto withdrawals like BTC needs 2 confirmations so that takes a little bit these days but that’s normal. A withdrawal address needs also an email confirmation before it can be used. Admin stuff but I like it a lot.
Cherry on top, my account will be automatically credited BCH(Bitcoin Cash) as per my XBT balance. Just wished it was higher but I am also highly invested in ALTS.
So, take it as you will but Kraken does not need to provide a bad experience.
Kraken can improve however on the speed of their interface.
I realize that exchanges are under constant attacks but it is annoying when the site is so slow that you miss out on buying the dip due to buy order being delayed when clicking submit order.
This happened quite a few times in May that I had to chase the lowest price by placing an order, finding the price has gone up too much, cancel it, submit new, cancel, submit new, leave it as it just jumped 10%.
You get the point, it is frustrating but I have also learned not to chase the lows and make my own decisions on what low I want to buy before it happens.
To make your experience better:
Tip on support:
I have managed support teams in the past so know a little bit on how they work. Please be kind to them when you write to them.
These are people you are dealing with and you will find that a little politeness, will go a long way in getting your issues resolved.
Tip on 2FA if you do not have a HW solution:
Use it always and use it for everything. Login, deposit, withdrawal, purchase etc.
When you setup, ensure you enable on 2 different devices. You do not want to lose your 2FA codes even though there is a master password unlock option.
Tip on passwords:
Make your passwords as strong as possible and use a password vault/manager like keepass, lastpass, a HW vault or any top online solution.
Take care,
John
The reviews on Kraken from users here are very bad and full of complains. For fairness I want to share my experience. I am a Tier 3 Verified User from Europe since 2013, when the exchange started operating. I use it occasionally but in the last 2 months I used it very frequently.
Here is my experience:
– I never had problems with SEPA deposits; in one occasion my deposit was put On Hold but it was my fault (I deposited the exact same amount of money in the space of 48 hours and this situation triggered the On Hold status on the second deposit, like explained in the Help of the site), the problem was resolved in 5 days after I opened a ticket, solicited attention through Twitter, and responded to an e-mail from the customer service.
– I had problems with the trading engine for some currency pairs (ETH/EUR in particular); market orders don’t always execute immediately, sometimes it takes MINUTES; I complained about this in a ticket, the customer service responded after approximately 24 hours,acknowledged the problem and apologized. They said that they are working on a new trading engine to fix the problem and, as a compensation, they credited to me 5000 KFEE after 2 weeks.
– I had a problem one year ago with my first and only STOP LOSS ORDER; I don’t remember the details but It didn’t trigger. I never used it again.
tl;dr, My experience is aligned with the one in the article above. From my experience the list of Pros and Cons is correct. I’m not linked to Kraken or paid by them. My suggestion: if you opened a ticket and they are not responding try soliciting it through Twitter, they will ask you to PM them the ticket number, so that they can speed it up. I used it and it worked.
This is the worst piece of sh!t site EVER !
Customer service is almost nonexistent…
They will tie up your funds with some bogus password failure, make you wait in a customer service Q, and away goes your coin.
You been warned.. I was warned and didn’t listen.
FUCKING SCAMMERS!
The support is tragic
I have a Kraken account. I have been unable to make a deposit to my account for over 3 weeks. The only option when one needs support is via email, no phone number listed. I’ve been hung out to dry. Kraken support is really bad!
I am writing this to warn others who are considering buying coins for money through Kraken. I deposited 2000 canadian dollars in May, weeks later no coins so I opened support ticket. I confirmed with my bank that the wire was successfull and I provided all documentation to Kraken support. After going back and forth a few times, six weeks later I am still waiting for some resolution, although at this point I am sure they got the money and I will most likely never hear from them again. Stay away
I only had issues with them, now I get 504’s error on the website, cannot retrieve my LTCs!! Stay away from them!
Kraken initially deposited my wire transfer in my account, then removed the funds from my account saying that the transfer failed. They later acknowledged that the transfer was successful, but have refused to provide the funds for several weeks. I do consider this a scam.
After I get verified tier 3 i made a bank transfer of 3000 euros. after 2 weeks I’m still waiting to get my money from kraken! possible scam?? I don’t know!
I am very sorry but with Kraken.com already TWO times the Stop Loss Market and the Trailing Stop Market orders do NOT trigger. I have lost 85% of my equity because of the following process: 1. Servers stop responding in the heat of the moment, needs an upgrade. 2. Stop Loss Market and Trailing Stop Market orders do NOT work as intended and WILL NOT save your money. Everything is gone, and it is not my fault. My only fault was to choose Kraken.com to be my exchange provider. This company’s website has an extremely unprofessional blueprint. Never again.
I am very sorry but with Kraken.com already TWO times the Stop Loss Market and the Trailing Stop Market orders do NOT trigger. I have lost 85% of my equity because of the following process: 1. Servers stop responding in the heat of the moment, needs an upgrade. 2. Stop Loss Market and Trailing Stop Market orders do NOT work as intended and WILL NOT save your money. Everything is gone, and it is not my fault. My only fault was to choose Kraken.com to be my exchange provider. Never again.
I have a deposit more than 2 weeks ago and it’s on status on hold since then. I have uploaded the requested documents for tier-3 verification but it takes ages to get verified. Sending support tickets doesn’t help at all.
I get the feeling this is becoming a scam.
I tried Kraken for the first time a few weeks ago, and had a terrible experience.
I was planning to use them to build a portfolio of a few cryptocurrencies as an investment. First of all their various membership tiers where confusing, but that seemed OK. I set up an account and verified myself up to tier 2. I then tried to deposit some money through SEPA in Euros (one of only two options open to me, if I wanted to deposit in fiat currency).
I am based in the UK, and my bank charges fees and stings me on the exchange rate, so normally, I use a third party service to do Euro transfers (something I have done for business many times before). It’s normally faster, I get a better exchange rate, and it’s simpler and all done online.
2 days later, my deposit showed up on the account, but said it was ‘on hold’. I looked at what that meant and looked at the FAQs, it said it might take a couple of days to clear because of money laundering/fraud checks. Fine. I waited. 5 days later, still on hold. So I look at the help section and the FAQs. None of the reasons for the deposit being on hold apply to me. So, I fire an email up to Kraken support.
My email goes into a black hole, I nudge Kraken every couple of days, no response. Finally, 8 days after my first email, I get a (possibly automated) message saying “sorry it took us so long to respond, but we think your deposit is no longer on hold”.
I write back to them and say, no, actually, it’s still on hold.
The write back saying “oh, you can’t send us deposits from a business account, you have to be tier 4 for that. Do you want to upgrade to tier 4”.
At this point, I am fuming, due to the delay and useless customer experience. In the meantime, I had also decided to buy Ether through a different route (I decided to buy some about 4 days before it shot up, but instead got bogged down in this customer experience nightmare with Kraken).
My response was, no I didn’t send it from a business account, I used a third-party service. It doesn’t say anywhere that I can’t use a third-party service, but if it does and I missed it, show me. Also, I really don’t want to deal with you after this experience, except to get the €500 that I sent you and that have been sitting in your account for nearly two weeks back.
They have promised to refund the deposit now, but I still don’t have my money.
In summary, useless customer service. Annoyingly complex service. Information on their website is incomplete. There are far better ways of buying holding cryptocurrencies out there.
Kraken Support is horribly NON RESPONSIVE. I have reported problems with their software that are preventing “validation” and sent in three support tickets.
After 1 WEEK … there has only been a “were sorry for the delay” … and NO help at all.
NO SERVICE AT ALL!!!
WAITING DAYS TO WITHDRAW ETH.
STILL NO SUCCESS.
WILL NEVER USE THIS EXCHANGE AGAIN.
I created an account on Kraken ,and made directly the verification until trier 3 for make deposit without problem but since 6 days my deposit of 410 euros is still “in hold”.
I sent in first 1 request and they never answered. I sent a lot after cause I want to know where is my money but nobody answer on their support.
If you want lose your money go there.
This website isn’t serious and not professional.