Kraken

Kraken Exchange logo

Kraken is a cryptocurrency exchange, operating in Canada, the European Union, Japan and the United States. It was founded in 2011 in San Francisco by Jesse Powell. It has been constantly working since September 2013. According to the founders, it is “the world’s largest bitcoin exchange in terms of the volume of transactions in euro and its liquidity.” Also, trades are held in Canadian dollars, US dollars, British pounds and Japanese yen.

According to the Kraken exchange review, it is one of the oldest and most popular exchanges operating nowadays. Kraken exchange offers lots of opportunities for traders worldwide in multiple fiat currencies. Kraken bitcoin exchange is also a global leader in terms of BTC/EUR trading.

Contents

History of the Creation

A month before the foundation of Kraken’s crypto-exchange’, Jesse Powell wanted to offer assistance to Mt. Gox, the largest crypto-exchange at that time, which suffered from a hacker attack. Seeing the technical problems of MtGox, Powell decided to found his cryptocurrency exchange to continue to introduce bitcoins to the masses. According to Jesse Powell himself, after the situation with MGox, he realized that “the exchange is really the most important element of the ecosystem.”

Kraken was launched in September 2013 after two years of development and beta testing. At first, only bitcoin, lightcoin and euro were traded there. Later, other fiat and crypto-currencies, including Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, DASH, Monero, Ripple, Zcash and Bitcoin Cash were added.

Kraken trading platform

Kraken became the first cryptocurrency exchange, the information about the trades on which was displayed by the Bloomberg terminal, and which was also the first to pass the Proof-of-Reserves cryptographic audit. In 2016, Kraken acquired American companies Coinsetter and Glidera, as well as Canadian Cavirtex. In 2017, this cryptocurrency exchange bought the CryptoWatch trading platform. In 2017, the Kraken exchange suffered from DDoS-attacks and performance problems. On January 10, 2018, Kraken suspended trading for more than 48 hours to install the update for which only two hours were allocated. Since its opening in 2011, it has been the longest service interruption.

Dealing with the Mt. Gox debts

A quick intro to using Kraken to trade cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero and others

In November 2014, Nobuaki Kobayashi, appointed as a trustee of the bankrupt MtGox crypto-exchange by the court, announced that Kraken was chosen as a platform to assist the investigation of lost bitcoins and the process of reimbursement of debts to creditors. The reason for this choice was the Kraken’s powerful security system, which had not been jeopardized by that time.

Experts noted that the situation with serving former clients of MtGox can play into the hands of Kraken, as they will have to create accounts on the crypto-exchange to get their money back.

At the beginning of March 2018, Nobuaki Kobayashi said that he had sold bitcoins and Bitcoin Cash in the ratio of $ 406.6 million for half a year. The bankrupt exchange has still had bitcoins for about $ 1.8 billion at the current rate.

Kraken currency exchange key features

  • Liquidity. Exchange Kraken offers high trading volumes and a high liquidity level. Moreover, it undertakes Proof of Reserves Audits.
  • Functionality. Kraken coin exchange is very good for beginners, while it provides a basic interface and detailed instructions on how to use Kraken exchange. More proficient traders also can get charting. And iOS compatible mobile app makes it easy for traders to access Kraken trading platform from multiple devices.
  • Trading options. According to Kraken bitcoin exchange review, the platform offers Bitcoin Margin Trading with leverage up to 5x with shorting. Stop-loss and automated trading is also available.
  • Security. Kraken crypto exchange uses cold storage techniques for securing funds along with PGP/GPG encryption. Two-factor authentication, a master key. And a global settings lock is also used for upper security. According to Wikipedia, Kraken passed the world’s first cryptographically verifiable proof of reserves audit based on the Merkle tree method described by Gregory Maxwell.
  • Availability worldwide. Kraken exchange is now available in a range of countries, including USA, Canada, Japan, and multiple European countries. The exchange also offers more than 47 market pairs with 7 base currencies including USD, CAD, EUR, GBP, and JPY.
  • 24/7 customer support.

How to use Kraken exchange

It’s easy to open a Kraken account by following the registration process, which includes entering your name, email, and password. The password should be at least 8 characters in length, contain letters, numbers, and special characters. There are two types of accounts – basic and advances.

For opening a basic account, users should provide their full name, date of birth, address, and phone number.

For opening an advanced account, users have to pass another verification process:

  • Upload an ID for proving your identity and residence. The documents depend on the country of residence. The verification time depends on the number of applications and takes from a few days up to over one week.
  • Set up 2-factor authentication (2FA). It provides a secondary security layer to your account.
  • As soon as that process is complete, you can fund your account.
  • Add your bank account to make transfers to and from. It’s possible to make a Kraken deposit only via bank wires and transfers.

Kraken deposit

To make a deposit to Kraken exchange, you should go to the “Funding” section of the Menu and select a deposit method. Choose to deposit via bank transfer or use your crypto wallet for transferring funds.

Kraken trading

As soon as you fund your account, you can click the “Trade” button in the menu and select “New Order”. Now select the currency to buy and the preferred payment currency. Kraken exchange currencies are presented in a wide choice. After selecting everything, click the green button and confirm your purchase. The information on Kraken exchange fees can be found on their official site

BTC

Bitcoins funds are credited to the exchange account after six confirmations.

EUR

EUR bank transfers (SEPA) are accepted for deposits at no charge by the exchange. International wire transfer (EUR) are accepted.

USD

International or domestic (U.S.) wire transfer.

Withdrawing Funds

BTC

Bitcoins may be withdrawn at no charge.

EUR

SEPA (EUR) and International Bank Wire Transfer (EUR) are supported.

USD

International and domestic (U.S.) bank wire transfer (USD) is supported.

Acquisitions

Several acquisitions of other bitcoin businesses have allowed Kraken to expand rapidly.

  • 19 January 2016 – the American Coinsetter and the Canadian Cavirtex
  • 27 June 2016 – the Dutch CleverCoin
  • 1 March 2017 – charting and trading platform CryptoWatch

See Also on BitcoinWiki

External Links

Source


Oficial website about
Kraken bitcoin exchange wikipedia
Kraken bitcoin exchange review
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraken_(bitcoin_exchange)
Kraken exchange fees