One of the most famous exchanges for trading and exchanging crypto currency is the Kraken trading floor. In this article we will look at how to use the exchange, how to register, verify and start trading.
Kraken Review, pluses and minuses
The Kraken Credit Exchange was founded in 2011 in San Francisco. Its main founder and CEO was Jesse Powell, who holds his post to this day.
For several years the playground was not very prominent against the competition, but in 2014 its popularity sharply increased. The fact is that after the scandalous bankruptcy of the MtGox exchange it was the leadership of Kraken who was ordered to investigate the loss of bitcoins from its accounts, to compensate for the losses of clients and even to exchange the crypto currency for fiat money.
The interface of the Kraken exchange is translated into two languages: English and Japanese. The selection of the Kraken Krypton exchange is not very large, but all the popular digital assets are present: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Zcash, Monero, Litecoin, Ripple, Augur, Dogecoin, Dash, Tether, EOS, Stellar Lumens, Melon, Gnosis and Iconomi. Also available is the currency: the dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen, the pound sterling and the Canadian dollar. New crypto-currencies are rarely added to the auction, only after they receive a truly global recognition. So for the year 2017 Augur (REP), Iconomi (ICN), Zcash (ZEC), Monero (XMR) and Bitcoin Cash recently were added.
Kraken was the first to pass a cryptographic audit, showed excellent results and received positive feedback from both the rating US media and top blockbuster publications (TradeBlock, TheBlogChain and others). Moreover, the well-known financial company Bloomberg began broadcasting a summary of the rate of Crypto-currency at Kraken.
Among the main advantages of the trading platform experts identify:
- the possibility of margin trading;
- the possibility of conducting operations with fiat money;
- a practical approach to the choice of currency pairs (only popular crypto-currencies with high liquidity are represented on the exchange);
- high level of system protection;
- IOS app;
- an ideal reputation in the crypto-currency community;
- a wide range of tools for conducting transactions.
Since the Kraken exchange is oriented more towards the English-speaking segment, users of the CIS countries note rather important shortcomings:
- the exchange is not adapted to the Russian-speaking audience;
- the user interface is quite complex and incomprehensible for beginners;
- to work on the stock exchange, it is necessary to undergo verification and provide personal data and documents translated into English;
- no withdrawal of funds in rubles;
- the exchange does not support popular payment systems in the CIS (WebMoney, Yandex-Money, QIWI and others).
Registration and verification at Kraken
Register on the exchange Kraken is very simple: you need to enter your login, password, e-mail and captcha. After that – confirm the registration by clicking on the link that will come to the post office, or use the code, which will also be sent in the letter. After clicking on “Active account”, your account will be permanently registered.
By itself, activation of the account does not yet provide an opportunity to participate in the auction. Unlike many other exchanges, Kraken only provides access to its functionality to users who have passed the verification procedure. In total there are 4 levels of verification. Go through them in the “Get Verified” tab.
- Level 1 – you need to enter a name, date of birth, country and phone number, then you will be able to replenish your account, withdraw money and trade on the exchange, you can withdraw no more than $ 2,500 per day and $ 20,000 per month.
- Level 2 – the user must confirm the address of residence, after which he can replenish and withdraw money from the purse in the Finnish currencies, the limit on the input / output of the crypto currency is 5 thousand dollars per day and 50 thousand dollars a month, the input / output of fiat money – 2 thousand and 10 thousand dollars, respectively.
- Level 3 – confirm the address of residence, provide a scan of identity cards and data about the current residence with confirmation of their relevance, after which access to margin trading will be opened and the limit on entering / withdrawal of the crypto currency, which will be $ 5,000 per day and $ 200,000 per day month, on input / output of fiat money – 2,5 thousand and 20 thousand dollars, respectively.
- Level 4 – allows you to create a corporate account, the increased limit on the input / output of crypto currency and fiat money is $ 100,000 per day and $ 500,000 per month. To pass this level, you need to contact Kraken technical support.
How to use the Kraken exchange?
The Kraken exchange interface is quite complex and does not have a Russian version. To start trading, you need to go to the appropriate tab – Trade. In this section, you can find general information about the balance of the user, the history of transactions, as well as open a new order. To do this, click on the New Order tab.
Traders of the kraken exchange are offered two types of orders: Market and Limit:
Market order is an order to an exchange or a broker to open a transaction at a market price, i.е. at the price that is on the rank right now.
Limit order is an order to an exchange or a broker to open a deal below the market in the case of a purchase, and above the market in the event of a sale. In this way, Limit helps to enter a warrant at a better price.
Also, on the Kraken exchange, orders are divided into three types of complexity – simple, medium and advanced. In the case of a simple order, you only need to choose a crypto currency, enter the desired quantity, specify a price or select a market, and also click “buy” or sell.
Orders of medium complexity provide the same opportunities. In addition, here you can choose the activation time, the validity period, and the currency (bitcoin, euro) in which the commission will be paid. Still here you can choose the size of the leverage – the instrument of margin trading (Kraken lends the trader a crypto currency in a certain ratio to his balance sheet).
An advanced level of complexity order contains the functionality of the previous two. Plus, you can immediately choose an additional closing condition.
With the schedule of quotations for crypto-currency pairs, you can get acquainted with the service TradingView, which opens in a separate window. To track the history of open positions, pending orders and closed deals, you must go to the “Orders” and “Position” tabs, which are located in the “Trade” menu.
At the top of the Kraken website, the CHARTS section is located, where you can see the volume of transactions, the prices of supply and demand, and the history of transactions for the selected pair.
More recently, the platform has launched a new trading interface. While he is at the testing stage, but looks very professional. There is all the functionality of orders, plus a few charts with prices kriptovalyut and fiat – novelties Kraken 2018.
How to replenish your wallet and withdraw funds?
You can top up your wallet in the “Deposit” tab (“Funding” section in your account). You can transfer money from a crypto or bank card (only for customers of partner banks Kraken). You can replenish and withdraw funds in different currencies:
- dollars;
- Euro;
- Canadian dollars;
- Japanese yen;
- pounds;
- popular crypto-currencies.
To withdraw funds from the Kraken Krypton credit account, you must select the option “Withdraw” in the drop-down menu of the account (the top right corner of the page). After that, find the currency in the list that you want to display. Before the conclusion, you need to add a purse using the “Add” button or select from the list using the “Select” button, if it was added earlier.
Commission on Kraken
The exchange commission for conducting operations depends on the total turnover of the user’s trading for the last month and the status of the trader. For makers, it is 0-0.16%, and for takeers – 0-0.26% of the transaction amount. Previously, the minimum commission was 0.2%, but last year the management lowered it to promote the exchange.
More information on commission fees for different trading pairs can be found on the website of the Kraken exchange.
Kraken Reviews
The Kraken exchange is a reliable platform with a variety of trading functions that will suit both beginners and experienced traders. But, despite all the obvious pluses, on different resources about the Kraken exchange there are conflicting reviews. For some traders, working on the site may seem complicated due to the lack of a Russian-language version, a not very user-friendly interface and a complicated verification procedure.
Kraken was never mentioned in the context of scandals or investigations of fraudulent schemes, and it was never hacked. This exchange has a good reputation and is considered one of the safest and most reliable in the world.
