Table of Contents
Kraken: Opportunities and Trading
Kraken appeared in 2011, immediately after the global announcement of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. The trading floor began to work fully only in 2013, after two years of development testing. The service was founded by Jesse Powell, a Californian. He is the founder and main investor, and previously held senior positions in the company. Not much is actually known about Powell. The only reliable information is that he lives in San Francisco and founded another firm, Ripple.
Within a year, Kraken had already taken a leading position in the cryptocurrency market. The platform became the largest bitcoin-for-euro trading platform and was included in the Bloomberg ranking. This caught the attention of major investors and they began investing in Kraken. The investments contributed to the growth of the trading platform, it became even more active and eventually took on its current form.
The exchange now offers a wide range of financial services. Among them are spot and margin trading in crypto, fiat transactions, staking, and money transfers. But the main activity of the exchange is trading.
Kraken attracts users with its simple registration, low commissions and the ability to perform financial transactions in fiat currencies. Another reason for the popularity of the exchange is the very easy verification, which can be completed in just a couple of clicks.
How to buy cryptocurrency on the Kraken exchange: all methods
To purchase tokens from the Kraken website, you need to do the following:
- Click the “Buy Crypt” button at the top of the screen.
- On the page that opens, click “Buy”.
- Choose a coin.
- Specify the amount.
- Confirm the transaction.
This method of buying cryptocurrency on the Kraken exchange should only be used when there is an urgent need for tokens. It allows you to get them as quickly as possible, but it has a number of drawbacks. The main ones are that not all coins are available, and a fee is charged for each transaction. Buying without these disadvantages is possible in the “Bidding” section. There you need to create an ad, which then goes into the trading block. There you can also search for sell offers yourself.
Unlike instant purchase, buying through the “Bidding” section does not guarantee a successful purchase of crypto: other users may not respond at all. However, this happens quite rarely, and mostly the ads are responded to, although it may take a long time.
Commissions on the Kraken exchange
One of the main advantages of the trading platform is the absence of additional payments, which are on other similar platforms.
In some cases, however, you will still have to pay commissions on Kraken. Below is a table showing the order in which commissions are charged and their amount.
|
Type of operation |
Amount of commission |
|
Depositing crypto account |
No fee for deposits of 0.0001 BTC or equivalent in another token |
|
Fiat account replenishment |
From $0 to $10 (depends on intermediary bank chosen)
|
|
Replenishment in fiat from a bank card |
3.75% of the deposited amount + 0.25 € on top |
|
Withdrawal of funds in crypto |
0.00015 BTC or equivalent in another token |
|
Withdrawal of funds in fiat |
From $0 to $35 (depends on intermediary bank chosen) |
|
Spot trading (order execution) |
0% to 0.26% (depends on the coin and trading volume) |
|
Opening margin |
0.01% of transaction amount for BTC (may differ for other tokens) |
Since the commission-free deposit limits are very loyal, and through some banks it is possible to withdraw funds completely free of charge, in fact, the trader has the opportunity to avoid additional payments on the exchange.
Trading on Kraken is done from a special section (terminal), which opens by clicking on the button with the image of the chart at the top of the screen. It has a dark background, which makes all the inscriptions more contrasting and allows you to follow the fluctuations of the quotes more closely.
The section contains the following interface elements:
- Currency pair selection box. It is located at the top of the page and allows you to choose different combinations of some coin and one of the traditional payment instruments. As the latter, by default, are the dollar or euro. However, if you want, you can choose another currency.
- Quote Graph. Displays the fluctuation of the price of token in relation to another currency pair. It looks quite standard and performs its main function – it allows to track changes of quotes. It can be scaled using the mouse wheel.
- Settings block. It is located between the currency selection buttons and the chart, it allows changing the parameters of the latter. Also in the settings block there is a button to change the currency pair.
- Orders. They are displayed in a separate block on the right side of the chart. They can be sorted by offer conditions using a special function from the list with offers to sell crypto. There is also sorting by the amount the user wants to sell.
- Block of operations. It is located on the right side of the trading section. Here you can confirm the purchase of cryptocurrency from another trader or create your own order.
To purchase a token, you must click on the offer from the corresponding block. As soon as this is done, all the information from it will be transferred to the empty fields on the right side of the screen. If the terms of the deal are satisfactory, you need to click on the “Review and Buy” button. After that the necessary sum will be deducted from the balance of the trader and at the same time another sum specified in the accepted offer will be credited. To cancel the transaction, press the “Reset” button.
To create your own order, you need to fill in all the fields in the operations block, where you need to specify the number of tokens and the value of one coin. You can place both buy and sell orders. You can switch between them using the buttons at the top of the operations block. You can track your current orders in the “History” section, which is accessed from the main page of the exchange.
Margin trading on the Kraken exchange is conducted from the same page as spot trading. To get trading funds from the platform, you need to activate leverage in the general trading section. This is done using the virtual regulator in the transactions block. You can not select the leverage value yourself, only a few preset options are available. They are not fixed and depend on the amount specified by the user when making a deal. The following options are offered:
- 2х,
- 3х,
- 4х,
- 5х.
To return to spot trading, you must move the leverage size control to the “None” position.
