Kraken

Kraken is a centralized crypto exchange where clients buy, sell, stake and hold crypto and trade futures, with fiat deposits and withdrawals in several currencies. It is operated by Payward, Inc., a privately held US company whose site describes it as the parent of Kraken and a group of businesses in trading, custody, payments, lending and benchmarks.

Kraken has operated since 2011; the footer of its site reads 2011-2026 and its About page says it launched more than 14 years ago. Jesse Powell is its co-founder. Since October 2024 Arjun Sethi, a board member since 2021, has been co-CEO; Kraken's announcement at the time named David Ripley as the other co-CEO. Kraken's About page puts its client base at more than 13 million people.

Payward is larger than the exchange. Its site lists Kraken, Kraken Pro, Kraken Wallet, NinjaTrader, Breakout, Krak, Kraken Prime, xStocks, CF Benchmarks and Reap among its brands. Payward closed the acquisition of Reap, a Hong Kong stablecoin card and payments firm, on 1 July 2026 and announced a deal for Lithuania's Saldo Bank on 14 October 2026, according to its newsroom.

Kraken has no exchange token. Payward submitted a confidential draft registration statement to the SEC in November 2025 for a possible public listing; reports since then describe the timing as pushed back, and no public S-1 or listing date exists as of October 2026.

The Kraken app is the simple interface: you pick an amount and pay a fee plus a spread built into the quoted price. Kraken Pro is the order-book interface for the same account, where you pay a maker or taker fee instead. Both draw on the same balances and custody.

Derivatives sit in separate regulated entities. Kraken's licensing page lists Crypto Facilities Limited, an FCA-authorised investment firm, and NinjaTrader Clearing, LLC, a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant that trades as Kraken Derivatives US. Kraken Securities LLC is an SEC-registered broker-dealer and Kraken Adviser LLC an SEC-registered investment adviser. Staking rewards are available to US clients only in selected states, and storage at Kraken Financial is open only to eligible clients in certain states.

Kraken Wallet is a separate self-custody app. You hold the keys, so the exchange's solvency does not affect it, but there is no account recovery if the recovery phrase is lost. Kraken publishes a dedicated page on official support channels for the wallet, which is worth reading before acting on any message about it.

Kraken publishes its fee schedule openly. The Kraken app charges 1% on instant and recurring buys and 1.5% on custom orders, and adds a spread; Kraken+ members pay no trading fee on up to $10,000 a month. Kraken Pro charges maker and taker fees that fall with 30-day volume.

Kraken's schedule varies by region. As displayed on 29 October 2026 to a non-US visitor, the lowest Kraken Pro tier was 0.40% maker and 0.80% taker for crypto pairs, falling to 0.00% and 0.05% above $500 million of monthly volume. A measurement this site took on 14 July 2026 found an all-in cost of 0.26% for a $10,000 bitcoin buy on Kraken Pro and 0.261% at $100,000, with 189.8 BTC of depth within 0.1% of the best ask. Check the rate shown for your own region before trading.

Crypto withdrawals carry a per-asset fee shown before you confirm. Fiat funding options and fees differ by currency and country and are listed on the fee page.

Kraken serves US residents under its main brand, with two exclusions and several partial ones. Its licensing page says Kraken, Kraken Securities and Kraken Adviser do not serve residents of Maine or New York. Crypto transfers are unavailable in Indiana; fiat transfers are unavailable in Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts and Utah; Texas and New Hampshire residents cannot hold or trade euros. Our explainer on which exchanges Americans can use covers how this compares across the market.

In the European Economic Area, Payward Europe Solutions Limited holds a MiCA authorisation from the Central Bank of Ireland covering custody, exchange, order execution, placing, portfolio management and transfer services, passported to the other EEA states. A second Irish entity, Payward Global Solutions Limited, is authorised to operate the trading platform itself. Both authorisations date from 25 June 2025 on ESMA's interim register.

Elsewhere, Kraken lists an FCA cryptoasset registration (Payward Limited) and e-money authorisation (Payward Services Limited) in the UK, FINTRAC registration and restricted-dealer status in Canada, AUSTRAC registration in Australia through Bit Trade Pty Ltd, a Bermuda digital asset business licence and a CNV registration in Argentina. Its licensing page states that Kraken is not licensed or regulated in Singapore.

Every account requires identity verification. Residents of Maine or New York who have moved can verify a new address with proof of residence.

Kraken's strongest piece of evidence is its proof of reserves. The latest report, a snapshot at 30 June 2026, is attested by The Network Firm LLP and shows reserve ratios of 102.9% for BTC, 100.5% for ETH, 100.6% for SOL, 102.3% for XRP and above 105% for USDC and USDT. Client balances are placed in a Merkle tree, and each client can check from Kraken Pro that their own balance was included. The report covers only the listed assets, a single moment in time, and its own appendix notes remaining risks; how to spot a weak proof of reserves explains why those limits matter.

There is no insurance on client crypto and no protection fund. Kraken's support page says crypto exchanges do not qualify for deposit insurance programs because they are not savings institutions, and that its own security cannot make up for weak personal security on an account. A theft from Kraken's wallets would therefore be covered, if at all, from Kraken's own capital.

On the cash side, Kraken Financial is a Wyoming special purpose depository institution. On 4 March 2026 Payward announced it had received a Federal Reserve master account, giving it direct access to Fedwire without a correspondent bank, with a phased rollout starting with institutional clients. Reporting at the time described the Kansas City Fed's approval as a limited-purpose account; it does not extend deposit insurance to client crypto.

No theft of client crypto from Kraken has been reported. The June 2024 incident involved Kraken's own funds, taken through a deposit bug by a security firm and later returned. Our guide to whether Kraken is safe goes deeper on account security.

Kraken's US enforcement history centers on sanctions screening and staking. In November 2022 OFAC settled with Payward for $362,158.70 after it served users who appeared to be in Iran because location blocking was not in place in time. In February 2023 Kraken paid $30 million to the SEC and agreed to stop offering its US staking-as-a-service program in the form the SEC considered a securities offering.

In November 2023 the SEC sued Payward, alleging Kraken operated as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, dealer and clearing agency. The parties jointly dismissed the case with prejudice in March 2025. The Fed master account approval drew written objections from Representative Maxine Waters and bank trade groups in March 2026, which is worth knowing if the account's terms change.

A balance on Kraken is a claim on Payward's subsidiaries, not coins held in your name on a blockchain. The proof of reserves shows that, at one moment, Kraken held at least as much of each covered asset as clients were owed in it. It does not show Kraken's other debts, it does not cover assets outside the listed set, and it says nothing about the days after the snapshot.

Four other risks are worth naming. There is no insurance fund, so a large theft would fall on Kraken's own capital. Accounts can be restricted for verification, sanctions screening or legal orders, as with any regulated custodian. Product availability differs by state and country and can change, which matters most for staking and derivatives. And Payward is in an acquisitive phase, buying banks and payment firms in 2026, which changes the group's risk profile in ways its public pages do not quantify.

None of this is specific to Kraken; it applies to every custodial exchange. The practical response is the same everywhere: keep on the exchange only what you are actively trading, use a hardware key or authenticator app for two-factor login, and withdraw the rest to a wallet you control.

Opening an account needs an email address and identity verification; trading can start from $10, according to Kraken's About page. Funding and withdrawal methods depend on currency and country and are listed with their fees on the fee schedule. Crypto withdrawals show the network-specific fee before you confirm.

Before moving a large balance, send a small test amount to the destination address. If you want to leave Kraken entirely, unstake first and allow for each network's unbonding period, then withdraw crypto to your own wallet or sell and withdraw to a bank. Kraken Wallet keys and recovery phrases belong to you and are not affected by closing an exchange account.

Kraken's support center offers 24/7 live chat and support forms answered by email. Phone support exists only inside the Kraken, Kraken Pro and Krak mobile apps, where a call option appears in the Support tab in certain situations. Kraken says it does not publish a direct dial-in number, so any phone number advertised as Kraken support should be treated as a scam.

Kraken states it will not call you without first arranging contact through email or chat, and that support will never ask for passwords, two-factor codes or seed words. Its official support accounts are @krakensupport on X, Telegram and Reddit, and staff there may ask for a ticket number or public account ID to verify you, never for credentials.

Dated milestones from Kraken, Payward and regulator records:

• 2011: Kraken begins operating, run by Payward, Inc.
• November 2022: OFAC sanctions settlement.
• February 2023: SEC staking settlement, $30 million.
• November 2023: SEC lawsuit filed; dismissed with prejudice in March 2025.
• October 2024: Arjun Sethi appointed co-CEO.
• June 2025: MiCA authorisations for two Payward entities from the Central Bank of Ireland.
• November 2025: Confidential draft S-1 submitted to the SEC.
• 4 March 2026: Kraken Financial receives a Federal Reserve master account.
• 1 July 2026: Payward closes its acquisition of Reap.
• 14 October 2026: Payward announces it will acquire Saldo Bank.