Kraken Review 2026: Fees, Safety, Bonus & Who It's For

Kraken has two ways to buy on one account. The Kraken app's Buy and Sell buttons charge a 1% fee plus a spread that Kraken doesn't publish. Kraken Pro, the order-book screen you reach with the same login, charges only the trading fee: at the entry tier, 0.40% for a limit order (maker) and 0.80% for a market order (taker). On a $500 market order that is $4 on Kraken Pro, against $5 plus the spread in the app.

Pro fees fall with your 30-day trading volume across Kraken's products. Crypto deposits are free. Crypto withdrawals cost a flat network fee per coin: 0.000015 BTC, 0.00017 ETH, 0.005 SOL, 0.1 TON (GRAM), 0.1 USDT on the TON network or 1 USDT on Tron. Bank and card methods show their fee before you confirm.

New Kraken users get $10 in Bitcoin after two things: a deposit of at least $100 by bank transfer or crypto, and $100 traded. Card deposits don't count. The offer isn't available in the UK or Singapore, and Kraken can't open accounts where it doesn't operate.

On a small first purchase the bonus matters more than the fee. Kraken Pro's 0.80% against Bybit's 0.1% is a $7 difference on $1,000; the $10 covers it for a first purchase of up to about $1,400.

Kraken has operated since 2011 and has never lost customer funds to a hack. Its most notable incident, in June 2024, was a bug that security researchers used to take about $3 million of Kraken's own money; the funds were returned. In April 2026 Kraken disclosed that a compromised support employee had exposed the contact details of about 2,000 clients; it said customer funds weren't at risk.

Kraken was the first major exchange to publish a Proof of Reserves, in 2014, and you can check that your own balance was included. In the EU, its entities are regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland under MiCA; in the US, it is registered with FinCEN and licensed state by state, though not in New York. The SEC's 2023 lawsuit against Kraken was dismissed with prejudice in March 2025.

Kraken serves the US except New York, the UK, the EU and most other countries. It is not available in India, where the financial intelligence unit ordered Kraken's apps removed, nor in sanctioned countries such as Iran, Cuba, North Korea and Syria. UK residents can trade, but the $10 new-user bonus doesn't apply there.

In the US, Kraken is the cheaper of the two big exchanges: 0.40% / 0.80% on Kraken Pro against Coinbase Advanced's reported 0.60% / 1.20%, plus the $10 bonus. Bybit and OKX's global exchange don't take US residents.

In Europe, Bybit and OKX charge about 0.1% per trade, so for frequent trading they cost less than Kraken Pro. Kraken's $10 bonus still wins on a first purchase of up to about $1,400, and some readers prefer an exchange with Kraken's longer record. In the UK, OKX is the cheapest of the exchanges we compare; Kraken and Coinbase work there too. Our fee calculator shows the cost of your exact trade by country.

Kraken is a weaker fit if you live in New York or India, if you trade small amounts many times a month outside the US (0.1% exchanges cost less), or if you only ever want to tap Buy in an app — in that case, the 1% plus spread adds up. For everyone who will use Kraken Pro, it's one of the best-regulated places to buy and sell crypto.