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Kraken is one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges still running. It opened in 2011, two years after Bitcoin itself, and it has never lost customer bitcoin to a hack of its exchange wallets. Our verdict: a strong choice for US buyers who want an established, regulated exchange and are willing to use its Pro interface to keep fees down.
| Founded | 2011 |
|---|---|
| Based in | San Francisco, California, USA (largely remote) |
| Coins | Hundreds of cryptocurrencies (600+ pairs) plus US stocks and ETFs |
| Fees | Kraken Pro 0.40% maker / 0.80% taker at the entry tier (falls with volume); simple app 1% on instant and recurring buys, 1.5% on custom orders, plus a spread; ACH deposits free |
| Custody | Custodial; withdraw to your own wallet on-chain (0.000015 BTC fee) or over Lightning; no retail vault or multisig product |
| Best for | Buyers in the US (outside New York and Maine) or in Canada who want an established, regulated exchange and will use the Pro interface to keep fees low |
Compare Kraken side by side with other exchanges
What it is
An exchange is a business that matches people who want to buy bitcoin with people who want to sell it, and holds your dollars and bitcoin in an account while you trade. Kraken is run by Payward, Inc., founded in San Francisco in 2011 by Jesse Powell and partners; today it is largely a remote company led by co-CEOs Arjun Sethi and David Ripley.
Kraken has two faces. The simple Kraken app is built for one-tap buying. Kraken Pro is a full trading screen with an order book, the live list of buy and sell offers, and it charges much less. Both live under the same account, so you can start simple and switch later.
Kraken is not bitcoin-only. As of 2026 it lists hundreds of cryptocurrencies (its homepage says 600+ trading pairs) plus US stocks and ETFs. For a bitcoin beginner that is mostly noise you can ignore. One important limit: Kraken does not serve residents of New York or Maine.
Fees
Kraken’s fees depend entirely on which interface you use. Two terms first. A maker fee applies when you place an order that waits on the order book; a taker fee applies when you accept an existing offer instantly. A spread is the gap between the price you pay and the market price, a hidden cost baked into simple “instant buy” quotes.
| Item (as of 2026) | Cost |
|---|---|
| Kraken Pro, entry tier (under $2,500 traded in 30 days) | 0.40% maker / 0.80% taker |
| Kraken Pro, $10,000+ in 30 days | About 0.20% maker / 0.38% taker, falling further with volume |
| Simple app, instant or recurring buy | 1% plus a spread that varies |
| Simple app, custom order | 1.5% plus a spread |
| ACH bank deposit or withdrawal | Free |
| Debit card deposit | 3.75% + $0.25 |
| Bitcoin withdrawal to your own wallet | 0.000015 BTC on-chain; Lightning 0.1% |
In plain English: fund your account with a free ACH transfer, buy on Kraken Pro, and a $500 purchase costs about $4 in fees. Buy the same $500 in the simple app with a debit card and you pay closer to $25 once the card fee and spread are counted. Kraken’s fee schedule notes that fees can change, so check it before a large purchase.
Buying bitcoin step by step
- Create an account with your email and a strong, unique password.
- Verify your identity. Like every US exchange, Kraken must confirm who you are (the “know your customer” rule), so you will upload a photo ID and confirm your address.
- Turn on two-factor authentication. Kraken supports passkeys and authenticator apps and does not allow SMS-based account recovery, which is good.
- Deposit dollars. Choose ACH, link your bank, and send any amount from $1. It is free and arrives quickly, though Kraken holds ACH-funded purchases for seven days before you can withdraw them.
- Open Kraken Pro, pick the BTC/USD market, and place an order. A “market” order fills right away at the taker fee; a “limit” order names your price and pays the lower maker fee if it waits.
- Withdraw to your own wallet. Add your wallet’s bitcoin address, confirm it by email, and send. Kraken supports both regular on-chain sends and the faster Lightning Network.
Security and trust
Kraken built its reputation by surviving the era when rivals like Mt. Gox collapsed. There is no known theft of customer funds from Kraken’s exchange wallets in its 15-year history. Two incidents deserve mention. In June 2024 a security researcher exploited a deposit bug to pull about $3 million from Kraken’s own treasury, not client accounts; the bug was fixed within an hour and the money returned. In 2025 and 2026 two support-team insiders improperly viewed limited data for about 2,000 accounts, and Kraken refused an extortion demand in April 2026. No funds were lost.
On the regulatory side, Kraken is registered with FinCEN as a money services business, holds a Wyoming bank charter through Kraken Financial, and received a European MiCA licence from the Central Bank of Ireland in June 2025. It paid the SEC $30 million in February 2023 to settle a case over its US staking product. The SEC then sued Kraken in November 2023 as an unregistered exchange; that case was dismissed with prejudice in March 2025 with no penalty.
Kraken publishes a proof of reserves every quarter. That is a snapshot, checked by an outside accountant, showing the exchange holds at least as much bitcoin as customers are owed, and you can verify your own balance is included. The June 30, 2026 snapshot showed bitcoin reserves at 102.9% of client balances. Kraken is privately held; it filed for an IPO in late 2025 and paused it in March 2026.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Free ACH and wire deposits and free ACH withdrawals, so the cheap path is genuinely cheap.
- Quarterly proof of reserves you can check yourself.
- Fifteen years of operation with no known loss of customer bitcoin, and strong account security (passkeys, no SMS recovery, withdrawal address confirmation).
Cons
- Not available in New York or Maine.
- The simple app is expensive: 1% or more plus a spread, and 3.75% for card deposits.
- Hundreds of other coins, stocks and futures on the same screen can distract a beginner who only wants bitcoin.
Who it’s for
Kraken suits someone who values a long track record and is happy to spend ten minutes learning the Pro screen. If you plan to buy a few hundred dollars a month by bank transfer and move it to your own wallet, the total cost is among the lowest of the exchanges we review.
If you want a bitcoin-only company, look at River or Strike. If you live in New York, Kraken is off the table. This is education, not financial or tax advice.
Next
- How to buy bitcoin: the general process, whichever exchange you pick.
- Compare all the exchanges side by side.
- Coinbase vs Kraken: the two big exchanges, head to head.
- Wallets and self-custody: why and how to move bitcoin off the exchange.