Is Kraken Safe & Legit? How Reliable Is It Really? (2024 Update)

Upfront summary: Is Kraken worth it?

Kraken is a legit cryptocurrency exchange. It is the largest Bitcoin exchange with euro volume and liquidity.

Kraken is a veteran U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange that has excellent features. These features include; an advanced trading platform with OTC options and margin trading.

Kraken has its headquarters in San Francisco, California, and Jesse Powell founded it in 2011. It reaches across the United States (except New York) and Canada. It also operates in the European Union and Japan.

People have criticized the Kraken site in the past years because the platform was unstable. This claim no longer holds because Kraken has modified the website. They have placed focus on the security of the website and customer support.

Kraken is also known to have excellent and competitive trading fees.

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Kraken Company Information

Official Website	https://www.kraken.com
Founded	2011
Owner	Jesse Powell
Location	San Francisco, California
Contact	https://support.kraken.com
Social Media	Kraken blog, YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Bitcointalk
Trust Score	Average

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What Is Kraken?

Kraken is one of the oldest crypto exchanges. It has a reputation as one of the platforms with good security, very advanced tools for the trade, and a vastly varying number of coins you can trade. It is known for regular penetration tests to ensure that the level of protection is always on the high. The internal and external teams are responsible for these penetrations.

Kraken offers one of the best services for experienced crypto traders. Especially for those who are looking for a secure and reliable crypto exchange. They prefer Kraken because the user interface is more advanced than usual crypto platforms. Newbie crypto traders may have a hard time navigating the interface

Kraken accepts the fiat currencies listed below:

Euros (EUR)
Japanese yen (JPY)
British pound (GBP)
Canadian dollars (CAD)
Swiss franc b(CHF)
Australian dollars (AUD)
U. S. dollars ( USD)

Any deposit or withdrawal usually takes 1-5 business days and can be made via SWIFT, SEPA, wire, or other domestic transfer.

As it has to do with cryptocurrency, Kraken supports:

Algorand (ALGO)
Augur (REP)
Basic Attention Token (BAT)
Balancer (BAL)
Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
Cardano (ADA)
Chainlink (LINK)
Compound (COMP)
Cosmos (ATOM)
Curve (CRV)
Dai (DAI)
Dash (DASH)
Dogecoin (DOGE)
EOS (EOS)
Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum Classic (ETC)
Gnosis (GNO)
ICON (ICX)
Kava (KAVA)
Kusama (KSM)
Kyber Network (KNC)
Lisk (LSK)
Litecoin (LTC)
Monero (XMR)
Nano (NANO)
OMG Network (OMG)
Orchid (OXT)
PAX Gold (PAXG)
Polkadot (DOT)
Qtum (QTUM)
Ripple (XRP)
Siacoin (SC)
Stellar Lumens (XLM)
Storj (STORJ)
Synthetix (SNX)
Tether (USDT)
Tezos (XTZ)
Tron (TRX)
USD Coin (USDC)
Melon (MLN)
Waves (WAVES)
Zcash (ZEC)

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Is Kraken Safe And Legit?

Is Kraken Secure?

Security is Kraken’s watchword. Since the launch of Kraken in 2013 till date, there has been no news of a hack. It has proven to be one of the most secure cryptocurrency exchanges. Although, no exchange is indeed entirely secure. So any exchange platform can open to hacks. Kraken approaches coin storage, security testing, and platform security using various means. They take these approaches to ensure that the exchange is tightly secure.

Does Kraken Steal Your Data?

Kraken cannot and will not steal your data. Kraken watermarks all the documents that you upload. Kraken watermarks them so that a third party won’t use them. It shows you how secure Kraken is.

Is Kraken Certified?

Kraken complies with all the regulations and legal standards in all its locations of operation. It is regulated by FinCEN also.

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Is Kraken Reliable And Trustworthy?

As will be seen in this article, Kraken is a very reliable crypto exchange platform. It is trustworthy. People trust them because of the length of operation and tight security.

Does Kraken Have A Refund Policy?

No. All transactions made on Kraken are final once you initiate them. You cannot reverse them. You can only cancel such a transaction if the said cancellation can happen before Payward executes it.

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Pros Of Kraken

It is highly secure
The fees are affordable and reasonable
It has a vast range of cryptocurrencies
It has advanced trading features
It is very reliable and accepts some fiat currency

Cons Of Kraken

The customer service is questionable
It is not for investors who are beginners
There are not many options for United States users
There is no tax support
The starter account is quite limited
The user interface might be quite challenging

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Best Kraken Alternatives

Kraken is one of the best exchange platforms. However, you may want to try out other alternatives because of software features, etc. Here are ten of them.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can A U.S Citizen Use Kraken?

Kraken follows all the local regulations put in place by the United States. So, it is open to United States citizens. However, citizens of Washington and New York do not have access to these services. Also, New Hampshire and Texas residents cannot hold, deposit, or trade EUR-dominated trading pairs.

How Does Kraken Work?

Kraken allows its users to invest in many types of altcoins. The method of setting up an account with Kraken may be a bit more complicated than other exchanges. Kraken offers benefits to Starter, Express, Intermediate, and Pro verification levels. When you apply for the last two grades, it is similar to opening a bank account. For new fiat deposits, Kraken will hold the money for three days.

Can You Buy Bitcoin On Kraken?

Yes, you can buy bitcoin on Kraken. To do this, you have to make sure your account is verified. Then you can place an order for bitcoin. On Kraken, bitcoin has an XBT symbol representation.

Does Kraken Need An I.D?

An ID is not necessary. There are certain things you need to provide. You will need to provide an email address, date of birth, physical address, phone number, and full name. When you are still using the starter account, there will be no need to verify this information. The only restriction is the amount you can withdraw per day. However, you cannot use Kraken with fiat currency if you have not submitted an Identification card.

Can A Credit Card Be Used To Buy Bitcoin On Kraken?

No, it is not possible to use credit cards for bitcoin on Kraken. This impossibility is because credit cards are not part of the supported methods for buying bitcoins on Kraken. You can only purchase bitcoin via bank wire transfer. This restriction is to ensure secure transactions. Also, to ensure there is no fraudulent deposit from a credit card that is not verified or authorized.

How Do I Get My Verification On Kraken?

It is easy to get verified on Kraken. There are two levels of verification available on Kraken. They are the intermediate level and the pro level. For the intermediate level: all you need to provide will be a proof of residence document less than three months old ( for example, a utility bill or a bank statement) and an authorized government-issued Identification card (driving license, national identity card, etc.). For United States citizens, Kraken will need an SSN or an ITIN. Some countries may ask you to take a photo while holding your Identification card.

Those who want to go through the pro level (the highest level of verification) will fill out a KYC questionnaire after providing the documents you have read about above.