Kraken Crypto Exchange Overview
Kraken is a cryptocurrency exchange based in San Francisco, California, currently operating in Canada, the European Union, Japan, and the United States. It is also one of the most liquid exchanges in the world, located on the 12th spot on the coinmarketcap.com rankings, with a $174 million in daily volume. The exchange also provides pricing to the Bloomberg terminal.
It was founded back in 2011, and it is owned by Payward Inc. One of the most influential people in the company is Jesse Powell. He had the chance of visiting Mt. Gox which was the largest Bitcoin exchange before Kraken was founded and he offered assistance after the first two major Mt. Gox hacks.
The Kraken exchange currently offers a wide variety of cryptocurrency pairs, offering the possibility of exchanging the most famous cryptocurrencies with US dollars, euro, Canadian dollar and Japanese yen.
Main Features
- Coin types: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, Bitcoin Cash, Monero, Stellar and many others.
- Available payment methods: Wire transfer, SEPA transfer, cryptocurrency
- Fees structure: trading fee oscillating between 0.0% and 0.26% depending on the volume. The entire fees list can be found here.
- Verification process: Kraken has 4 tiers of verification. In order to reach the 3rd tier, each customer must provide a proof of identity and a proof of residence. The 4th tier is just for high-volume individuals or corporate traders.
- Geographical restrictions: 197 countries currently accepted.
Pros
- Kraken is one of the few exchange platforms that allow fiat deposits and also has a wide variety of fiat-cryptocurrency pairs.
- The exchange also excels in terms of fee structure, having a very competitive offer.
- High liquidity environment, especially in euro and JPY pairs.
Cons
- Due to a high number of users, the customer support service is very slow sometimes.
- Fiat deposits can be expensive for users from the United States or Canada.
- The exchange does not cover a wide variety of cryptocurrencies as others do.
Kraken Review Summary
Overall, Kraken still remains among the top cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. Despite the relatively high deposit fees, it is one of the best places to trade cryptocurrencies for fiat money. Traders can also benefit from a very liquid environment due to high popularity and a huge number of people trading with Kraken.
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