Table of Contents
Coinbase and Kraken are both based in America. This makes them attractive to U.S. residents, since many huge exchanges based in other countries are not very convenient for Americans. Moreover, some of these exchanges are not even available to US citizens. Therefore, it is hard to overestimate the importance of these exchanges for traders from the United States.
Introduction
According to Coingecko, both Coinbase and Kraken are among the top 5 cryptocurrency exchanges in terms of adjusted trading volume. Coinbase outperforms Kraken in terms of liquidity. But on the other hand, Kraken provides more trading pairs than its competitor and provides a different set of features. Some see Coinbase as an exchange portal where people can buy cryptocurrency quickly. Since traders can take advantage of both of these platforms, it is useful to know how to transfer bitcoins from Coinbase to Kraken.
Kraken has a reputation as one of the safest cryptocurrency exchanges with really great liquidity. Given the fact that it provides a wide range of trading pairs, it is not surprising that many traders who already have experience with Coinbase will at some point want to try trading on the Kraken exchange. Some reports say that Kraken’s interface may be cited as a reason why inexperienced users prefer to start trading on Coinbase. The Kraken interface is said to be too complex, although this claim is debatable. You will find that at least transferring BTC from Coinbase to Kraken is not difficult.
Many existing guides are outdated due to changes in the Coinbase interface. For example, they all start with the same recommendation: go to the Accounts tab in Coinbase. There is currently no such tab on the Coinbase website. The manuals referred to the “Submit” button as a button with a paper airplane icon. You can’t find that icon now, it has been removed. This new manual contains up-to-date information.
A step-by-step guide
To transfer BTC from Coinbase to Kraken, you need to follow these steps:
- First of all, you need to get the BTC address to which the money will be sent from Coinbase. It is important to remember that Kraken exchange refers to Bitcoin as XBT instead of the more common BTC. Don’t let this confuse you! Go to the Kraken exchange and open the Financing tab. It can be found in the horizontal menu at the top of the home page.
On the Financing tab, click on “Replenish” under “Bitcoin” and select the “Create a new address” option. The newly created address can be written, copied or saved as a QR code, which can later be used in Coinbase.
- All other steps will take place on Coinbase. Go to the “Portfolio” tab on Coinbase.
- Select a bitcoin wallet, click “Send” and enter the amount of BTC you want to transfer in the “Amount” section of the pop-up window.
- Then you need to insert the address of BTC Kraken (it was obtained in step 1) in the Recipient field.
You also need to specify the amount of BTC to be transferred from Coinbase to Kraken. When the address is entered and the amount is specified, it remains to press the “Continue” button. This is the last step.
Warning! It is extremely important to exercise caution when filling in addresses and amounts when performing cryptocurrency transactions. Don’t forget that the Bitcoin registry is unchangeable and that actions are irreversible. It’s better to double-check your data before pressing OK, than find out that money was sent to the wrong address due to an error in the address bar. Another common mistake is using the wrong cryptocurrency address. Bitcoin (BTC or XBT) addresses are different from, say, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) addresses. Make sure you use the address of the currency you really need. Also, it is better to check transaction statuses to know if the action has been fully executed or if you need to wait longer if the transaction is pending. If the pending status stays too long, it may be helpful to contact the exchange’s support team.
What to do if the coins didn’t make it into the wallet?
The transaction can take a long time. It usually takes anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours. So it’s best not to panic if the transaction is not completed immediately or even within one hour. If two hours have passed and the funds still haven’t made it into your Kraken wallet, it’s best to ask for help. It’s important to find out who to ask for help. You can see your transaction status in the Recent Transactions section of the Portfolio tab. If the transaction has a “pending” status with Coinbase, it is best to contact Coinbase support, as it is likely that the money is still under Coinbase’s control. The support button can be found on any (!) page of the Coinbase website on the right side of the bottom of the page.
If a transaction has a “Completed” status on Coinbase, but the bitcoins are still missing from your Kraken wallet, it’s time to contact Kraken support. Most likely, they are now required to complete the transaction or provide an explanation as to why the assets are not yet showing up in the account. Customer support can be contacted through the “Contact Us” button at the very bottom of the home page.
If you are not sure which exchange should help you, you can contact both of them. It is important to give the support team all the information they need: the date and time of the transfer, transaction statuses on both exchanges, number of bitcoins sent, account name, etc. This will make it more likely that the support team will have enough information to find out what the issue is and provide a solution after the very first message from the user, without asking additional questions, which can take a long time (especially considering the fact that sometimes there are huge intervals between messages from both sides).
A brief paraphrase
Below you can see a brief summary without screenshots. For your convenience, the summary is arranged in a sequence of tabs and buttons.
On Kraken: Funding> Deposit> Create New Address (write it down, copy or use QR code)
On Coinbase: Profile> Bitcoin> Send (specify amount)> Recipient (insert address)> Continue
How do I transfer BTC from Kraken to Coinbase?
Now we know how to transfer bitcoins from Coinbase to Kraken. It’s not a difficult task to do the opposite. In general, the process is the same, except for some of the tab names and buttons.
See the quick guide below:
On Coinbase: Profile> Bitcoin> Receive Button (the new address can be written, copied or scanned as a QR code)
On Kraken: Funding> Withdrawal Button> Add Address (Insert Coinbase Wallet Address)> Withdrawal View Button> Withdrawal Confirmation Button
How to transfer other coins?
Clearly, translating Ethereum, Ripple, Zcash, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and other coins from Kraken to Coinbase or vice versa is not important if you already know how to transfer bitcoin.
You can use the same guide by replacing bitcoin with another coin of your choice.
Transferring Ethereum from Coinbase to Kraken:
On Kraken: Funding> Deposit> Create New Address (write it down, copy or use QR code)
On Coinbase: Profile> Ethereum> Send (specify amount)> Recipient (insert address)> Continue
Transferring Ethereum from Kraken to Coinbase:
On Coinbase: Profile> Ethereum> “Get” button (the new address can be written, copied or scanned as a QR code)
On Kraken: Funding> Withdrawal Button> Add Address (insert Coinbase address)> View Withdrawal Button> Confirm Withdrawal Button
Transferring Ripple from Coinbase to Kraken:
On Kraken: Funding> Deposit> Create New Address (write it down, copy or use QR code)
On Coinbase: Profile> Ripple> Send (specify amount)> Recipient (insert address)> Continue
Ripple transfer from Kraken to Coinbase:
On Coinbase: Profile> Ripple> Receive button (new address can be written, copied or scanned as a QR code)
On Kraken: Funding> Withdrawal Button> Add Address (insert Coinbase address)> View Withdrawal Button> Confirm Withdrawal Button
Transfer Litecoin from Coinbase to Kraken:
On Kraken: Funding> Deposit> Create New Address (write it down, copy or use QR code)
On Coinbase: Profile> Litecoin> Send (specify amount)> Recipient (insert address)> Continue
Transfer Litecoin from Kraken to Coinbase:
On Coinbase: Profile> Litecoin> Receive Button (the new address can be written, copied or scanned as a QR code)
On Kraken: Funding> Withdrawal Button> Add Address (Insert Coinbase Wallet Address)> Withdrawal View Button> Withdrawal Confirmation Button
Conclusion
As you can see, the process of transferring coins from Coinbase to Kraken and back is really intuitive. The most serious and difficult part of it is maintaining attention to avoid typos in the address and not mixing up the currencies. We hope this guide helps you complete the task easily and without stress.
