Kraken vs. Binance: Which Is Right for You?

Many or all of the products here are from our partners that compensate us. It’s how we make money. But our editorial integrity ensures our experts’ opinions aren’t influenced by compensation. Terms may apply to offers listed on this page.

Both Kraken and Binance have a lot to offer in the realm of cryptocurrency exchanges. Kraken was launched by Jesse Powell in 2011 after he witnessed the detrimental Bitcoin hack on Mt. Gox. Many of those Mt. Gox users left the crypto world, but Powell decided to start a more regulated crypto exchange to avoid a future Mt. Gox -- and now we have it; Kraken.

But Binance is also a heavy-hitter. It's touted as the No. 1 spot crypto trading platform. This is mostly because of the massive variety of coins available on Binance, as well as its high liquidity. If you want to see exactly how the two exchanges stack up to each other, read our full comparison below of Kraken vs. Binance.

Kraken vs. Binance: At a glance

Offer	Kraken	Binance
Rating	Rating image, 4.00 out of 5 stars. 4.00/5 Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor.
Commissions	0.0% - 0.40% maker-taker fees (Kraken Pro)	0.02% to 0.1%
Next Steps	Open Account for Kraken Read Full Review	Read Review

Kraken vs. Binance: Fees

Kraken offers the convenience of being able to use a debit or credit card. But fees are going to be quite high if you're planning on using this method. The fee is 3.75% of your deposit in processing fees, plus $0.25. There is also a 0.9% fee for stablecoins and 1.5% for any other crypto or FX pair. Add it up, and you could be looking at up to 5% on top of your transaction in fees alone, a very high amount.

It does offer Kraken Pro, however, where the fees are much more competitive. Kraken employs a maker/taker fee schedule incentivized by lower fees for higher volume trades. Within this structure, the maker fees range from 0.16% all the way down to 0% (meaning you don't pay anything in maker fees at a certain volume). And the taker fees range from 0.26% to 0.10%, also extremely palatable.

Binance employs a similar fee structure. Again, fees are dependent on your trade volume in the past 30 days, but with reductions applying for the amount of Binance Coin (BNB) you hold. Binance also uses the maker/taker discrepancy where fees differ based on whether the transaction is adding liquidity to the market (maker fees) or taking away liquidity from the market (taker fees).

Based on this, Binance fees range from as low as 0.02% on maker transactions and 0.04% on taker transactions.

On the higher end, so if you are dealing in low trade volumes, Binance fees max out for both maker and taker fees at 0.10%. So as you can see, Binance fees are quite a bit lower than Kraken's 3.75% starter fee. And on top of that, Binance fees are even lower than Kraken Pro fees.

For example, a trade for Bitcoin on Binance would have a 0.10% fee starting out. Keep in mind though that you could get a 25% reduction on transaction fees if you pay with Binance Coin (incentives!). But lets assume you are new to Binance and do not have any Binance Coin to use toward the fees. That means at 0.10% fee for Bitcoin, a purchase of $100 of Bitcoin would end up being $100.10 in total, not bad at all. Especially compared to Kraken, where $100 in BTC would cost you 3.75% plus the $0.25 convenience fee, putting you at $104.

Kraken vs. Binance: Cryptos available

Since Kraken has been around for so long, it is many crypto users' first exchange, and it offers over 160 coins and tokens, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, Solana and Dogecoin, as well as many lesser-known coins. It also offers excellent staking options for many of these big coins, including Ethereum, Cardano, and Solana.

Although Kraken's variety of coins is impressive, Binance is more than double. Binance offers over 370 coins and over 1,000 trading pairs. However, currency selection with Binance can actually be half the size of Kraken's, depending on where you are located.

Unfortunately, the full features of the Binance platform, including coin selection, are restricted to residents of the U.S. and are replaced with a separate platform, known as Binance.US. Although it's made specifically for U.S. residents, this service is not available to users in all states. Binance.US offers just over 100 coins and does not offer trading on cryptocurrency futures or trades with leverage. That being said, Binance and Binance.US both offer a large variety of popular coins to choose from, and no notable mainstream coins are absent from their offerings.

Kraken vs. Binance: Wallets

Kraken is clear about being a crypto exchange and not a wallet service. Users can deposit funds into the corporate wallet for safekeeping while their funds are being bought, sold, or used for staking. But it does not supply users with a personal Kraken wallet.

When funds are deposited, they are moved to cold storage and hot wallets, typical for crypto exchanges. When funds are withdrawn, that transaction is handled by the hot wallet rather than the deposit address, so the sending address for withdrawals on Kraken is different from the deposit address.

Kraken does recommend and support popular hardware wallets Trezor and Ledger.

Binance also does not have its own wallet, but there are a few wallets that are capable of receiving tokens on the Binance Smart Chain blockchain, including:

Math Wallet
Trust Wallet
MetaMask
TokenPocket

Binance most highly recommends Trust Wallet to use on the exchange.

Kraken vs. Binance: Security

A top question in cryptocurrency investors' minds is always going to be security. So you will be comforted to know that both of these exchanges would be considered secure.

Kraken has, what's come to be, standard two-factor authentication. But it also has several other remarkable security features such as a global settings time lock, configurable account timeout, and SSL encryption. Not only that, but it has "safe-coin storage" where 95% of all deposits are kept in offline, air-gapped, geographically distributed cold storage. It maintains full reserves so users can always withdraw immediately on demand. Kraken also keeps servers in secure cages with 24/7 surveillance, armed guards, and video monitors. All of the sensitive information is encrypted, and all accounts are strictly monitored. When it comes to security, Kraken is one of the strongest exchanges available.

Binance keeps around 90% of the funds entrusted to it in cold storage. This ensures hackers can't access it. But Binance stores 10% of its trading fees in an insurance fund in case of any losses relating to hacking, providing some coverage in case of a potential breach. It has been subject to hacks, but has done its due diligence in replacing stolen funds from said insurance fund. It also uses security protocols like two-factor authentication, security keys, and Google Authenticator to help ensure that only authorized people can gain access to your coins. It also includes more advanced security features including whitelisting and anti-phishing code.

Final take

Kraken is going to be an ideal exchange for those looking for a variety of coins and excellent security features, and who don't mind paying for that security. Kraken is also highly licensed and fully regulated, so if you care about investing on an exchange that plays by the rules, this may be the one for you.

Binance might be the exchange for you if you want a more customizable way to trade and store your different types of cryptocurrency. But keep in mind the options are limited for those in the U.S. Even so, Binance offers a variety of tokens to trade and is one of the best places to do so if it's available in your location.

Did you find what you were looking for? If you are still unsure, check out our list of best cryptocurrency exchanges and apps to see the top options available to the savvy crypto investor.

This device is too small

Kraken vs. Binance: Which Crypto Exchange Is Right for You?