Kraken FAQs

On April 2nd, 2019, we updated the Get Verified page so that it no longer shows the personal information that was submitted during verification.

This is a security design feature in case your account ever becomes compromised ( see our 'Securing your account' guide ).

If you need any personal information updated, see our article on Updating account information.

If you need to view your transaction history, see our article on How to view your older account history.

Kraken's phone support isoutbound only. This means you can request us to call you when creating a support ticket on support.kraken.com, but we don't have a public phone number that you can call yourself.

If you find a phone number claiming to be for Kraken support,it's a phishingscam. Do not call it. Instead, please send us a support ticket with information about the scam.

Be sure to also follow our guide for Securing Your Account.

Click here if you use GPGMail instead of Enigmail.

We include a signature.asc file with all account notification emails and company announcement emails.

Note: these emails may come from [email protected] and [email protected], but they still use the public key for [email protected].

To verify the integrity of each email, you will need to:

(0) Import our public key and sign it

This is aone-time setup you need to do before you can verify emails from Kraken:

Import our public key for [email protected]

Sign our public key

(1) Check if the email is signed

At the top of the message, you should see "Good signature from Kraken Exchange <[email protected]>".

This indicates that it is a signed email and that the email has not been tampered with during transit

However,anyone can create a PGP key for any email address. That's why the next step is critical.

(2) Check if the signature is trusted

If the signature ribbon is in green, and the email icon has a red seal in the middle, this means it's trusted.

Please immediately reach out to our support team

You can also check by:

Clicking the "Details" button at the end of the signature ribbon.

Select "View Key Properties".

Look at the "Validity" field.

Troubleshooting

If the signature ribbon is blue (rather than green), and the email icon has a blue question mark on it, this most likely means:

you forgot to sign our public key, and/or

you forgot to set the "Ownertrust" of your own private key to "Ultimate"

If you've done both and the signature is still not showing as trusted, it may be a fake email. .

Click here if you use Enigmail instead of GPGMail.

We include a signature.asc file with all account notification emails and company announcement emails.

Note: these emails may come from [email protected] and [email protected], but they still use the public key for [email protected].

To verify the integrity of each email, you will need to:

(0) Import our public key and sign it

This is aone-time setup you need to do before you can verify emails from Kraken:

Import our public key for [email protected]

Sign our public key

(1) Check if the email is signed

The checkmark in PGP/GPG email programs indicates that it is a signed email andthat the email has not been tampered with during transit.

Please immediately reach out to our support team

However,anyone can create a PGP key for any email address. That's why the next step is critical.

(2) Check if the signature is trusted

If you click on the signed checkmark to open the signature details, you should see it say "This signature can be trusted".

Troubleshooting

If the signature details say "This signature is not to be trusted", this most likely means:

you forgot to sign our public key, and/or

you forgot to set the "Ownertrust" of your own private key to "Ultimate"

If you've done both and the signature is still not showing as trusted, it may be a fake email. .

You can easily flip from long to short, or short to long. To do this, simply execute an opposing order with more volume than your open positions.

Suppose you have two short positions open at 1 XBT volume each, but you want to close these positions and go long 1 XBT at 3:1 leverage. You can do this by buying 3 XBT at 3:1 leverage.

Trade balance is the combined total value of all collateral currencies in your account.

Trade balance is always expressed in terms of the quote currency for the selected currency pair. As a result, your trade balance willfluctuate with exchange rates between currencies.

For example:

If XBT/USD is the selected currency pair, the trade balance will be in USD.

If XBT/EUR is the selected currency pair, the trade balance will be in EUR.

Used margin is the amount of your trade balance that is initially withheld for creating a margin position.Unlike free margin, used margin does not countunrealized profits/losses.

Used margin will decreasewhen part or all of a position is closed.

Used margin is calculated as the size or "Cost" (Avg Price x Open Volume) of an open position divided by the level of leverage selected.

Leverage Level

Used Margin

2x

1/2 of the position size

3x

1/3 of the position size

4x

1/4 of the position size

5x

1/5 of the position size

For example, if you buy 0.5 XBT for 5,000 USD (the price is 10,000 USD per XBT):

At 5X leverage,your used margin is 1,000 USD.

At 4X leverage,your used margin is 1,250 USD.

At 3X leverage,your used margin is 1,667 USD.

At 2X leverage,your used margin is 2,500 USD.

Assuming the same position size, it isbetter to choose the higher level of leveragebecause it leaves more free margin in the account and thus has a larger buffer from liquidation.

However, if the position size is maximized based on the leverage selected, then a higher leverage would be more risky.

The opening time of a margin position is handy to know since any open margin position is subject to the margin financing term limits. For US-based clients, any open margin position will be auto-liquidated after 28 days and for clients based outside of the US they will be auto-liquidated after 365 days.

To check the opening time of a margin position:

1. Navigate to the Positions-tab under the Trade-tab on your account

2.For the position, click on the order ID to open the details of the position

3. On the open positions details page, click on the order ID on the right-hand column to open the details of the parent order

4. On the details page of the parent order, look for the closed time of the order. The closed time of the parent order of the position is when the position was created

Cryptocurrency exchanges do not qualify for deposit insurance programs because exchanges are not savings institutions. Exchanges are not even meant to be cryptocurrency wallets.

Nonetheless, we take great care to protect the assets of our clients from loss. We were founded in July 2011 and have been operating since May 2013. We're now one of the oldest, largest, and most trusted cryptocurrency exchanges.

Please note that no amount of security on our end can make up for poor personal security. It is vital for clients to take advantage of the account security tools and advice that we offer.

You can select a new currency pair from the drop-down menu located in the upper left corner of any page on your account. You can also select pairs in the intermediate and advanced order forms.

If you wish to select the DASH/EUR currency pairing, use the steps below:

Step 1: Click on the drop-down menu

here

Step 2: Navigate to the DASH section of the drop-down menu, followed by clicking on DASH/EUR

If you are using the trade.kraken.com or Cryptowat.ch interface, please click for instructions.

Unfortunately your available balance for new orders isn't displayed on the site. We realize that this is very inconvenient and we're working on adding this feature.

In the meantime, you can get an idea of your available balance for a specific currency by looking at the "withheld" amounts on the withdrawal page for that currency.

For example, if you want to buy a cryptocurrency using EUR, you can go to Funding > Withdraw > EUR and look at your "withheld" amount. Your "withheld" amount is usually the amount you have tied up in open orders, so that number subtracted from your balance in EUR will tell you how much EUR you have left for new orders.

If your balance in EUR is less than your verification level's withdrawal limit, then the figure listed as your "maximum withdrawal" amount will be the same as the amount of funds you have left for new orders.

The same goes for other currencies - you can look under Funding > Withdraw > [currency] to see how much is withheld in that currency.

Opening cost is the sum of amounts paid to open all currently open positions.

If you open a short XBT/USD position for 3,000 USD and later open another short XBT/USD position for 2,000 USD, your opening cost is 5,000 USD.

Current valuation is the sum of the current value of all open positions.

If you have one position with a current value of 2,500 USD and another with a current value of 2,100 USD, your current valuation is 4,600 USD.

Profit/Loss is the total "paper" (or unrealized) profit or loss for all open positions. It does not include trading fees.

For long positions, you have a paper profit (loss) if your opening cost is lower (higher) than current valuation.

For short positions, you have a paper profit (loss) if your opening cost is higher (lower) than current valuation.

The unrealized profit or loss does not affect your currency balances until the positions are closed.

However, as of the September 27th, 2018 trading engine update, any unrealized loss will cause the same amount to be withheld from your Trade Balance. Withheld funds are unavailable for withdrawal or trading.

Example of Calculating Profit/Loss

Suppose you have two short positions open.

One has an opening cost of $3,000 and a current value of $2,500. This position has a paper profit of $500.

The other has an opening cost of $2,000 and a current value of $2,100. This position has a paper loss of $100.

Your total profit on the two positions is $400.

Equity is your account trade balance plus (or minus) paper profit (or loss).

Suppose you begin with a 10,000 USD trade balance and open a XBT/USD position for 5,000 USD.

If this position later has a paper loss of 750 USD, your account equity will be 10,000 - 750 = 9,250 USD.

Free margin is the amount of your trade balance that is available for opening new positions.

Free margin is calculated as equity minus used margin.

For example,

With equity of 8,750 USD, and

used margin of 2,500 USD,

free margin would be 8,750 - 2,500 = 6,250 USD.

If you try to open a position for which you do not have sufficient free margin, the order will be automatically cancelled (with the message "Insufficient initial margin").

A position is a vehicle for trading margin currency pairs and does not involve the exchange of any currency in your account.

If you select a level of leverage on the order form, then you are creating an order to open a position.

Open positions have paper (or unrealized) profit or loss. The profit or loss is only realized (added to or deducted from your account balances) when the position is closed with a closing order.

A single margin order can create multiple trade positions depending on how many trades are used to fill the order.

The order position consolidates all the trade positions under a single position so it's easier to see the net result of the margin order.

Order positions can be seen under Trade > Positions page in your account. All order positions begin with "O".

Trade positionscan be seen by clicking on the order position'sID and then navigating to thetrade positions tab.

What Is Hedging?

Hedging is an attempt to mitigate the risk of an investment by investing in an opposing one.

In this way, it can be thought of as a type of insurance. When you "hedge positions", youre attempting to go both long and short for the same margin trade.

We do not allow direct hedging

You cannot have both long and short positions open at the same time in a single currency pair. All long positions must be closed before a short position can be opened (and vice versa). See Flipping Positions.

However, you can have multiple long positions or multiple short positions.

We do allow indirect hedging

It is possible to hold positions in different directions for different pairs.

For example, you could be long XBT/USD while simultaneously being short XBT/EUR.

What is closing a position? See here

What is settling a position? See here

Closing multiple positions

Margin trading is First in First Out (FIFO). This means that if you have multiple positions open, the position created first will be closed first. Suppose you have 2 long positions open at 1 XBT volume each. If you then sell 1 XBT (at any leverage), the position that will be closed will be the one that was created first.

If you use the closing order tool (shown below) at the bottom of your open positions list, the different volume settings will have the following results:

100% volume: creates a limit order that, if filled, will close all your open positions. It doesn't matter what level of leverage you select for this closing order.

50% volume: creates a limit order that, if filled, will close 50% of your open positions by volume, starting with your oldest positions. It doesn't matter what level of leverage you select for this closing order.

25% volume: creates a limit order that, if filled, will close 25% of your open positions by volume, starting with your oldest positions.It doesn't matter what level of leverage you select for this closing order.

200% volume: creates a limit order that, if filled, will close all your open positions and create an opposing position of the same volume (i.e. close a 1 XBT long position and open a 1 XBT short position). The leverage level does matter for this order, since the newly opened position will leveraged at the level selected in the order.

Note that you can enter a different volume amount or select a different order type in the order form if you want to do something different from the four options above.

Settling multiple positions

The FIFO rule (first in first out also applies to settling positions). This means that if you have multiple positions open, the position created first will be settled first. Suppose you have 2 long positions open at 1 XBT volume each. If you then do a Buy Settle Position order for 1 XBT, the position that will be settled will be the one that was created first.

If you use the settle order tool (shown below) at the bottom of your open positions list, the different volume settings will have the following results:

100% volume: creates a settle order that will settle all your open positions. It doesn't matter what level of leverage you select for this settle order.

50% volume: creates a settle order that will settle 50% of your open positions by volume, starting with your oldest positions. It doesn't matter what level of leverage you select for this closing order.

25% volume: creates a settle order that will settle 25% of your open positions by volume, starting with your oldest positions. It doesn't matter what level of leverage you select for this closing order.

200% volume: youcan'tsettle more than 100% of your open positions, so this will create and order that will settle all your open positions (the remaining volume of the order will be canceled). It doesn't matter what level of leverage you select for this settle order.

Note that you can enter a different volume amount for the order if you wish.

It is possible for an order to partially execute (or "fill") if there are insufficient balances in the account for the order to fully execute.

This most commonly occurs when an order is placed for maximum volume. For example, selling 100 XRP while owning 100 XRP.

This is because the trading fee was not taken into consideration when placing the order. But during execution, the order will fill as much as possible while accounting for the fee. This will result in an order status of "Canceled"with reason "Out of Funds".

You can see how much of the order successfully executed by looking at the Volume Exec'd column.This should also be reflected in your Balances visible under Trade > Overview.

If you click on the order ID underTrade > Orders, more information will be provided. You can see the reason for a canceled order on that page.

(1) Margin trading is available to Starter-verifiedclients and above.

(2) Leveraged trades can only be placed via the Intermediate or Advanced order form, or using trade.kraken.com.

(3) Leverage is only enabled for the following currency pairs: Margin trading pairsavailable on Kraken.

(4) EUR margin pairs are not available to residents of the US states of New Hampshire (NH) and Texas (TX).

This subscription feed publishes account information.

Authentication is required.

Feed

Event Type

API Keys

Original & Signed Challenge

account_log

subscribe / unsubscribe

Any

Yes

Sample Sent Message

{ "event":"subscribe", "feed":"account_log", "api_key":"CMl2SeSn09Tz+2tWuzPiPUjaXEQRGq6qv5UaexXuQ3SnahDQU/gO3aT+", "original_challenge":"226aee50-88fc-4618-a42a-34f7709570b2", "signed_challenge":"RE0DVOc7vS6pzcEjGWd/WJRRBWb54RkyvV+AZQSRl4+rap8Rlk64diR+Z9DQILm7qxncswMmJyvP/2vgzqqh+g==" }

Sample Return if Successful.

{ "event":"subscribed", "feed":"account_log", "api_key":"CMl2SeSn09Tz+2tWuzPiPUjaXEQRGq6qv5UaexXuQ3SnahDQU/gO3aT+", "original_challenge":"226aee50-88fc-4618-a42a-34f7709570b2", "signed_challenge":"RE0DVOc7vS6pzcEjGWd/WJRRBWb54RkyvV+AZQSRl4+rap8Rlk64diR+Z9DQILm7qxncswMmJyvP/2vgzqqh+g==" }

Field

Type

Description

event

string

The result, subscribed or subscribed_failed or unsubscribed or unsubscribed_failed

feed

string

The requested subscription feed

api_key

string

The user api key

original_challege

string

The message that is received from a challenge request

signed_challege

string

The signed challenge message with user api secret

Sample Subscription Snapshot Data

{ 'feed':'account_log_snapshot', 'logs':[ { 'id':1690, 'date':'2019-07-11T08:00:00.000Z', 'asset':'bch', 'info':'fundingratechange', 'booking_uid':'86fdc252-1b6e-40ec-ac1d-c7bd46ddeebf', 'margin_account':'f-bch:usd', 'old_balance':0.01215667051, 'new_balance':0.01215736653, 'old_average_entry_price':0.0, 'new_average_entry_price':0.0, 'trade_price':0.0, 'mark_price':0.0, 'realized_pnl':0.0, 'fee':0.0, 'execution':'', 'collateral':'bch', 'funding_rate':-8.7002552653e-08, 'realized_funding':6.9602e-07 }, { 'id':1689, 'date':'2019-07-11T04:00:00.000Z', 'asset':'bch', 'info':'fundingratechange', 'booking_uid':'680d3973-5774-4a9d-b807-ab8aa73f95c3', 'margin_account':'f-bch:usd', 'old_balance':0.01215715298, 'new_balance':0.01215667051, 'old_average_entry_price':0.0, 'new_average_entry_price':0.0, 'trade_price':0.0, 'mark_price':0.0, 'realized_pnl':0.0, 'fee':0.0, 'execution':'', 'collateral':'bch', 'funding_rate':6.0309345058e-08, 'realized_funding':-4.8247e-07 }, { 'id':1688, 'date':'2019-07-11T00:00:00.000Z', 'asset':'bch', 'info':'fundingratechange', 'booking_uid':'72e3396e-8fc4-4bd9-9379-8e2b2225af85', 'margin_account':'f-bch:usd', 'old_balance':0.01215847263, 'new_balance':0.01215715298, 'old_average_entry_price':0.0, 'new_average_entry_price':0.0, 'trade_price':0.0, 'mark_price':0.0, 'realized_pnl':0.0, 'fee':0.0, 'execution':'', 'collateral':'bch', 'funding_rate':1.64955714332e-07, 'realized_funding':-1.31965e-06 } ] }

Field

Type

Description

feed

string

The subscribed feed

logs

list of structures

A list containing the account logs

id

positive integer

The identifier of the log

date

ISO8601 datetime

The creation time of the log according to server date and time

asset

string

The asset related of the booking

info

string

A description of the booking

booking_uid

string

The unique id of the booking

margin_account

string

The account name

old_balance

float

The account balance before the described in info action

new_balance

float

The portfolio value calculated as balance plus unrealized pnl value

old_average_entry_price

positive float

The average entry price of the position prior to this trade

new_average_entry_price

positive float

The average entry price of the position after this trade

trade_price

positive float

The price the trade was executed at

mark_price

positive float

The mark price at the time the trade was executed

realized_pnl

float

The pnl that is realized by reducing the position

fee

float

The fee paid

execution

string

The uid of the associated execution

collateral

string

The currency of the associated entry

funding_rate

float

The absolute funding rate

realized_funding

float

The funding rate realized due to change in position size or end of funding rate period

Sample Subscription Delta Data

{ 'feed':'account_log', 'new_entry':{ 'id':1697, 'date':'2019-07-11T13:00:27.632Z', 'asset':'pi_bchusd', 'info':'futurestrade', 'booking_uid':'55a02b5b-2c90-4d43-b0eb-eb3801d50e3f', 'margin_account':'f-bch:usd', 'old_balance':1.0, 'new_balance':2.0, 'old_average_entry_price':413.3, 'new_average_entry_price':374.3445326979084, 'trade_price':342.1, 'mark_price':342.4, 'realized_pnl':0.0, 'fee':0.0, 'execution':'fc49fea9-8827-4a2e-8e36-c047523ddc30', 'collateral':'bch' } }

Field

Type

Description

feed

string

The subscribed feed

logs

list of structures

A list containing the account logs

id

positive integer

The identifier of the log

date

ISO8601 datetime

The creation time of the log according to server date and time

asset

string

The asset related of the booking

info

string

A description of the booking

booking_uid

string

The unique id of the booking

margin_account

string

The account name

old_balance

float

The account balance before the described in info action

new_balance

float

The portfolio value calculated as balance plus unrealized pnl value

old_average_entry_price

positive float

The average entry price of the position prior to this trade

new_average_entry_price

positive float

The average entry price of the position after this trade

trade_price

positive float

The price the trade was executed at

mark_price

positive float

The mark price at the time the trade was executed

realized_pnl

float

The pnl that is realized by reducing the position

fee

float

The fee paid

execution

string

The uid of the associated execution

collateral

string

The currency of the associated entry

funding_rate

float

The absolute funding rate

realized_funding

float

The funding rate realized due to change in position size or end of funding rate period

Sample Return if Unsuccessful

{ "event":"error", "message":"Invalidproductid" }

Field

Type

Description

event

string

Always error

message

string

An error message out of:

Invalid feed

Json Error

Leverage allows you to open a position that is larger than the balance of your account.

Suppose you fund an account with $5,000. Using leverage, you could open a $10,000 XBT/USD position with this account (long or short). If you close this position for a 20% gain, your account balance will grow by 40% ($2,000). This amplified upside potential is why traders find leverage exciting.

Leverage is a very powerful tool because it can amplify your gains, but it's also dangerous because it can amplify your losses as well, and even wipe out your account if you aren't careful.

Opening a leveraged position should be considered a short-term trade, not a long-term investment.

Sensible risk management should be employed when using leveraged positions: you should set both a stop to limit loss and a profit target for every open position.

Before using leverage please take time to fully understand it and the risks involved. There are a lot of concepts to learn, but this is your money at stake, so it's worth your time to walk through everything carefully.

Margin trading does not result in any exchange of currency in your account.

If you open a long position with a leveraged buy order, you will not receive cryptocurrency in your account.

If you open a short position with a leveraged sell order, cryptocurrency will not be deducted from your account.

Instead, all profit or losses from your margin position are unrealized until you close the position, at which point adjustments to your currency balances will be made to account for the profit or loss.

Adjustments to your currency balances are usually made in the quote currency of the pair you are trading (i.e. EUR in the pair XBT/EUR).

By now, you've probably heard that Kraken has acquired the UK-based cryptocurrency futures trading platform CryptoFacilities and launched futures trading for existing Kraken clients. For more information about the acquisition, click here to read our blog post on it.

You may have some questions about the acquisition and what it means for you. We try to answer these below.

I am an existing client of CryptoFacilities, what does this mean for me?

You will be able to continue using Crypto Facilities without any changes. The same funding methods will be available to you and you do not have to go through Kraken if you do not want to.

Will my CryptoFacilities account be closed and I forced to create a Kraken account?

At the moment, we are not closing existing Crypto Facilities accounts.

I have a Kraken and a CryptoFacilities account, can I merge the two?

No, this is not possible. You can ask us to close your Crypto Facilities account and then only use your Kraken account to trade Kraken Futures. If you have funds in your Crypto Facilities account, you have to withdraw these manually to your Kraken account

Can I transfer funds on my CryptoFacilities account to my Kraken account?

No, this is not possible. You have to manually move the funds in your Crypto Facilities account to your Kraken account by withdrawing them and then depositing to your Kraken account.

Will Kraken Fee Credits (KFEE) work on Kraken Futures?

No, KFEE will not work on Kraken Futures.

Will the volume discounts that exist for Kraken spot markets carry over to Kraken Futures?

No, the volume discounts for Kraken spot and margin markets will not carry over to Kraken Futures. However, Kraken Futures has a Revenue Sharing Program in place that pays out 30% of the fees generated each week.

Hi, welcome to Kraken! :)

To get started, follow these steps and guides:

1. Create an account

2. Secure your account

3. Get verified

4. Fund your account

Then you can:

Buy or sell cryptocurrencies (" spot exchange ")

Margin trade cryptocurrency pairs

Trade Futures on Kraken Futures

Many new clients are confused by thestar/asterisk (*) symbol next to their Stellar Lumens balance.

The star/asterisk (*) is simply the currency symbol of Stellar Lumens, just like how "$" is the symbol for US dollars and Canadian dollars, or how "" is the symbol for Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.

The star/asterisk does not mean that there is something wrong with your balance.

On the New Order form (for Trading) and on the Withdrawal form, symbols ($,,, etc) cannot be used anywhere.

Also if you use decimal values, be aware that:

There has to be a number before the decimal place.

Must use dot decimal separator, not a comma decimal separator.

Examples

Not Acceptable

Acceptable

$6300

6300

5.200

5200

.001

0.001

11,000

11000

For trading specifically, also keep in mind Price and volume decimal precision.

For withdrawals specifically, also keep in mind:

Withdrawal minimums

Common reasons for being unable to withdraw fiat currency

Common reasons for being unable to withdraw cryptocurrencies

SMS (text message) notifications are only available for status.kraken.com.

To subscribe or unsubscribe:

Go to status.kraken.com.

Click on "Subscribe to Updates".

Select the phone icon.

Enter your phone number.

Press the "Subscribe via Text Message" button.

You can then view and manage your subscription options, where you cansubscribe/unsubscribe to individual components.

For example, if youdon'tuse Kraken Futures, you can hit Uncheck All on the Kraken Futures component.

You can view even more detailed sub-components by clicking the "+" sign to the left side of each main component.

You should not participate in an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) or token sale directly from your Kraken account.

The reason is because we are not a wallet service and in an ICO / token sale tokens are assigned to theaddress the funds were sent from.

Like most digital asset exchanges, Kraken uses a combination of cold storage and a hot wallet, so your sending address for a digital asset will not be the same as your deposit address.

This means that if you're depositing into an ICO / token sale address, Kraken's hot wallet will be the depositor and not your personal Kraken deposit address. As such, you will not have control over the tokens sent to this address and we will have no way of knowing that those tokens belong to you.

Recovering tokens from an ICO / token sale that have been assigned to a Kraken withdrawal addresses is not possible.

Our platform does not support the vast majority of tokens.

We strongly recommend that you participate in any ICO / token sale from a wallet to which you control the private keys.

On September 27th, 2018 we made the following updates to our trading engine.These changes may affect the way you do margin trading.

Funds used in a margin position are now withheld.

This will prevent traders from converting their margin collateral into a non-collateral currency (which could cause a liquidation).

This will also prevent margin collateral from being converted into other collateral currencies.

Collateral withheld per position is approximately the cost of the position divided by the leverage used, and then adjusted by the current profit/loss of the position.

Calculations for available margin have been updated.

Profit/loss and open orders are now taken into account when placing a new order.

Margin orders can no longer be placed using margin that is also being used in a different margin order.Previously, these orders would fail upon being triggered. Now, the orders fail at creation.

Buy-side and sell-side margin withholdings are not withheld in the opposite direction, up to the point of the original order.

For example, if you have a 5 XBTUSD sell order that maxes out your margin, you can still place a 5 XBTUSD buy order (but not a 6 XBTUSD buy).

Cryptocurrency, also known as digital assets, trading is the buying, selling or holding of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (XBT), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) amongst others, with the aim of generating a profit from short, medium or long term fluctuations in their prices.

Trading on the Kraken platform can be performed by exchanging fiat currency such as USD, EUR, and CAD for cryptocurrency, or one cryptocurrency for another for example Bitcoin (XBT) for Ethereum (ETH).

If you are new to the world of cryptocurrency trading, Kraken has put together a number of resources that may help you get started, these include:

A Trading glossary that has definitions of terms that you will come across while trading.

The different types of cryptocurrencies you can trade on the Kraken exchange. You can find the full list of assets available on the Kraken platform here.

How to trade using leverage and margin.

How trading fees are calculated

If you are already an experienced trader, the following resources maybe useful;

How to set up the different order types and order options available to you on the Kraken platform.

How to connect your Kraken Account to the trade.kraken.com interface/cryptowat.ch

Learn about the Kraken API

There are three different pages were you can view trading price charts:

(1) kraken.com/charts

You can see spread and depth charts on our charts page.

(2) TradingView on kraken.com

We have integration with TradingView (a 3rd party) for candlestick charts. To open a TradingView chart, click the icon to the leftof the currency pair selector.

trade.kraken.com

(3) trade.kraken.com

You can open the (aka Cryptowatch) interface to view candlestick charts, and use a variety of advanced charting and drawing tools.

A common issue for our Canadian clients when adding their Canadian bank account to Kraken for receiving CAD withdrawals is entering the incorrect:

bank code,

transit number, or

account number.

You can find these numbers by looking at a cheque for your account:

If you do not have a cheque book for your account, you can request a void cheque document from your bank's branch or website.

Institution/bank codes

Each bank has a code that identifies them within the Canadian banking system.The following list is intended as an overview of these codes.

This list was created on a best-effort and should only be used to double-check your records. You should contact your bank to confirm the number if you are not sure.

Financial institution

Code

Bank of Montreal

001

Scotiabank (The Bank of Nova Scotia)

002

Royal Bank of Canada

003

The Toronto-Dominion Bank

004

National Bank of Canada

006

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce

010

HSBC Bank Canada

016

Canadian Western Bank

030

Laurentian Bank of Canada

039

Bank of Canada

177

Alberta Treasury Branches

219

Royal Bank of Scotland N.V. (Canada Branch)

240

Bank of America, National Association

241

The Bank of New York Mellon

242

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (Canada)

245

BNP Paribas (Canada)

250

Citibank Canada

260

Deutsche Bank AG

265

Mega International Commercial Bank (Canada)

269

JPMorgan Chase Bank National Association

270

Korea Exchange Bank of Canada

275

Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. Canada Branch

277

UBS Bank (Canada)

290

Socit Gnrale (Canada Branch)

292

State Bank of India (Canada) Alberta

294

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation of Canada

301

Amex Bank of Canada

303

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Canada)

307

Bank of China (Canada)

308

Citizens Bank of Canada

309

First Nations Bank of Canada

310

BofA Canada Bank

311

J.P. Morgan Bank Canada

314

CTC Bank of Canada

315

U.S. Bank National Association

318

Habib Canadian Bank

321

Rabobank Nederland

322

Capital One Bank (Canada Branch)

323

Presidents Choice Financial

326

State Street

327

Citibank N.A.

328

Comerica Bank

330

First Commercial Bank

332

HSBC Bank USA National Association

333

Pacific & Western Bank of Canada

334

United Overseas Bank Limited

335

Maple Bank

336

Canadian Tire Bank

338

UBS AG Canada Branch

339

ICICI Bank Canada

340

Bank West

342

Dundee Bank of Canada

343

General Bank of Canada

344

Fifth Third Bank

345

Socit Gnrale (Canada Branch) Ontario

346

Bridgewater Bank

347

The Northern Trust Company Canada Branch

349

DirectCash Bank

352

Jameson Bank

354

Shinhan Bank Canada

355

M&T Bank

357

HomEquity Bank

358

Walmart Canada Bank

359

Barclay's Bank PLC Canada Branch

360

MonCana Bank of Canada

361

Community Trust Company

507

The Canada Trust Company

509

Laurentian Trust of Canada Inc.

522

Effort Trust Company

532

Investors Group Trust Co. Ltd.

536

Manulife Bank of Canada

540

CIBC Trust Corporation

548

Montreal Trust Company of Canada

550

Sun Life Financial Trust Inc.

551

Peace Hills Trust Company

568

Royal Trust Company

570

Royal Trust Corporation of Canada

580

National Trust Company

590

Royal Bank Mortgage Corporation

592

TD Mortgage Corporation

597

TD Pacific Mortgage Corporation

603

HSBC Mortgage Corporation (Canada)

604

Scotia Mortgage Corporation

606

CS Alterna Bank

608

ING Bank of Canada

614

B2B Bank (formerly B2B Trust)

618

ResMor Trust Company

620

Peoples Trust Company

621

The Equitable Trust Company

623

Industrial Alliance Trust Inc.

625

Manulife Trust Company

626

Household Trust Company

630

Latvian Credit Union Limited

803

Communication Technologies Credit Union Limited

807

Arnstein Community Credit Union Limited

808

Central 1 Credit Union British Columbia

809

All Trans Financial Services Credit Union Limited

810

La Confdration des Caisses Populaires et Dconomie Desjardins du Qubec

815

La Fdration des caisses populaires du Manitoba Inc.

819

Central 1 Credit Union Ontario

828

La Fdration des Caisses Populaires de lOntario Inc.

829

Airline Financial Credit Union Limited

830

Meridian Credit Union

837

Atlantic Central

839

Dundalk District Credit Union Limited

840

Alterna Savings and Credit Union

842

Goderich Community Credit Union Limited

844

Ontario Civil Service Credit Union Limited

846

Concentra Financial Services Association

853

Golden Horseshoe Credit Union Limited

854

La Fdration des Caisses Populaires Acadiennes Limite

865

Credit Union Central of Manitoba Limited

879

Credit Union Central of Saskatchewan

889

Alliance des caisses populaires de l'Ontario Limite

890

Credit Union Central Alberta Limited

899

This error occurs when there is an insufficient amount of funds in your chosen currency. If you are looking to withdraw CAD to your bank account, you must first have CAD in your Kraken account.

To see how much CAD is in your account:

Go to theTrade > Overview page.

In the Balances table, look at the Canadian Dollar (CAD) row not the Total (CAD) row!

A common mistake is to mixup the total estimated worth of the portfolio in CAD (for example, C$6,115) with the CAD balance itself (C$1,000). click here

The Total row will display the totalvalueof all the currencies in your account, represented by the quote currency of the trading pair you currently have selected. The Total row is not how much you can withdraw.

If you do not have CAD in your account to withdraw, you will either have to:

Trade the other available currencies in your account into CAD ( you may have to trade into ETH or XBT first before making a second trade to CAD ).

Deposit CAD into your account. For instructions, .

To remove a registered Canadian Dollar (CAD) bank account on your Kraken account:

Navigate to Funding > Withdrawal > Canadian Dollar (CAD)

Click on the Manage button.

Click on the red "X" button next to the bank account you wish to remove.

Click on the "Delete bank account" button on the confirmation window.

See the screenshots below for guidance.

Sometimes the amount sent from your bank and what we receive is different.

This can happen due to intermediary or corresponding banks (banks between your bank and our bank account) charging fees or even exchanging the funds en route to a different currency because the destination country uses a different currency than the transaction currency.

To prevent this from happening, we highly recommend to ask your bank to determine the best (and cheapest) route for the transfer. You can also specifically ask your bank to include a message with the transaction that states any corresponding or intermediary bank should not exchange or convert into a different currency en route.

Kraken does not currently apply fees to domestic CAD deposits. If you see fees were charged, you can ask your bank to trace the transaction and find out at which point conversions were made and fees were taken. It is important to note that your bank may charge you to trace the funds.

Any fees associated with CAD deposits are not Kraken's responsibility.

If you have recently deposited CAD to your Kraken account and you would rather recall the funds back to your bank account. You can request one in 3 ways:

Option 1 - You can ask your sending financial institution to recall the funds. Once your request is places, we will reach out to you via email.

Option 2 - You can create a support ticket to proactively ask us for further direction.

Option 3 - If you want to recall your funds because you have not used the correct Kraken deposit instructions (i.e. you have not used our account name, the SWIFT is incorrect, and/or our bank account number is incorrect), you may ask your bank to send an amendment to your wire transfer instead of asking for a return.

Once one of these options is conducted, we will review your request along with our bank and we will conduct a best-effort to return your funds.

InterFIN CAD funding is now available to select Pro-verified clients.

Who is eligible?

Canadian Pro-verified Corporations/Institutions

International Pro-verified Corporations/Institutions

Retail or Individual clients

How to apply?

Please use this form to join our waiting list.

After you have been selected from our waiting list, you will be invited to apply for a custodial account with our payment partner. Once you have an account with our payment partner, we will be able to activate the InterFIN transfer method on your Kraken account.

What if I don't have an corporate or institutional account?

If you do not already have a corporate or institutional account with us, we welcome you to either convert your existing Kraken account to a corporate account, or create a separate corporate account. Please note that you can only create a corporate Kraken account in the name of a business you own or control.

How do transfers work?

CAD deposits are processed via instant transfer between your account with our payment partner, our account, and your Kraken account. Transfers through InterFIN are near-instantaneous, and may require additional processing time to settle between all parties.

CAD withdrawals can be initiated via your Funding > Withdraw > Canadian Dollar (CAD) page. Once a CAD withdrawal is initiated, it will be processed to the corresponding account with our payment partner.

(value in CAD.)

Minimum Transfer Size

Maximum Transfer Size

Fee*

Processing Time* (approx.)

Deposits

1,000

5,000,000

Free

0 - 10 minutes

Withdrawals

1,000

1,000,000

Free

0 - 10 minutes

* Kraken does not charge clients for InterFIN deposits or withdrawals. However, your bank, any banking intermediary used, or our payment partner may apply additional fees as per any fee schedule.

How many transfers can I send in any given time?

The maximum amounts shown above state how much you can send per transfer. As an example, you can initiate 2 x $1,000,000 withdrawals through InterFIN per day if your Kraken account daily limit is $2,000,000. In the reverse situation, if your daily deposit limit is $15,000,000 for your Kraken account, you can send 3 x $5,000,000 per day.

Questions?

If you have any questions in regards to InterFIN, please fill out our InterFIN CAD Funding Application.

Are you receiving the following error while trying to access domestic USD deposit or withdrawal options?

"One of your account documents has not been accepted by our payment processor. Please contact support so they can assist you."

If yes, please reach out to our US funding team for further assistance.

This error may happen only after Intermediate or Pro verification, and does not affect your Kraken verification level in any way. It only affects the USD funding option on your Kraken account.

You may be required to provide one or more of the following documents:

US government-issued ID such as passport, driver's license, etc.

ID confirmation photo

Proof of Residence document

Social Security Number (SSN)

If you receive the "Service unavailable" error when adding a bank account for United States (US) domestic withdrawals, this means one of two things:

(1)Your routing number is not FedWire capable.

Kraken does not currently support ACH bank transfers for withdrawals.

Make sure that you are entering FedWire account and routing numbers and not an ACH account and routing numbers.

(2) You have reached the limit of two bank accounts.

You are onlyable to have two domestic USD accounts on profile for withdrawals.

You can contact support if you need to have one or all of your existing bank accounts removed from your Kraken account.

This article will help all eligible clients unlock Kraken Futures trading.

You can connect your Kraken account and start trading futures in five easy steps:

1.Eligibility

Check if you meet the requirements.

2. Launch Kraken Futures

You can launch Kraken Futures from the Kraken website or from the futures trading platform directly. Both methods are described below.

From Kraken.com

Log into your Kraken account normally on https://kraken.com/login.

Click on the "Futures Trading" button on the "Trade" > "Overview" tab of your account.

The trading platform loads and you are ready to trade futures!

transfer funds from your Kraken exchange account

From Futures.Kraken.com

Start on the Kraken Futures page, https://futures.kraken.com.

Click the Sign in with Kraken-button in the upper-right corner.

Log in to your Kraken account.

The trading platform loads and you are ready to trade futures!

3. Terms of Service

Read and agree to the Kraken Futures Terms & Conditions :

4. Investor Questionnaire

Complete the investor questionnaire.

5. Fund

Seamlessly

You are actually using cryptocurrency in the product!

Many CFD sites and listed Futures exchanges provide you the ability to speculate on crypto but specifically do not allow you to do so using cryptocurrency as the margin collateral.

Cryptocurrency cash-settled futures provide a direct use-case for crypto because it requires traders to use the asset itself for cash settlement

Hodlers never need to sell

Many crypto hodlers do not want to move their coins to an exchange to sell to manage risk.

With crypto Futures you can send a portion of that crypto asset to an exchange to establish a hedge position where you will earn more crypto as the price declines. In financial engineering terms this creates a "synthetic USD" position. Thus, you are doing a perfect USD hedge without touching USD or selling your crypto.

Improved tools to hedge cryptocurrency price risk

How often do you hear people say x cryptocurrency is too volatile to do business as a merchant? Well, inverse crypto/USD futures allow you to hedge USD value using only the crypto asset.

This makes holding crypto less risky because you can use it in these vehicles to stabilise in USD value! These products give the opportunity to smoothen volatility for merchants who use this argument to avoid crypto. These are risk averse firms who need risk averse solutions to integrate crypto.

More liquidity for crypto markets

Futures and other derivatives allows people to get in and out of crypto more easily since liquidity builds when there are more products allowing traders to use and access them.

Market makers on crypto orderbooks can better manage their exposure if there are Futures available for them to frictionlessly hedge risk in either direction while providing liquidity on underlying spot markets.

This contributes to a virtuous liquidity cycle in crypto markets where a rising tide floats all boats.

Maturing financial market for cryptocurrency

Futures allow the market to anchor their expectations of price into the future. By pricing the asset in different maturities there is a curve that develops, which forms the basis for a "rates" market in crypto assets. This is fundamental to cryptocurrency gaining more credibility as a financial asset.

More efficient price discovery

By allowing investors to easily go short and long, the markets price discovery mechanism is more efficient which could provide for smoother market adjustments rather than jittery market

What is Kraken Futures?

Kraken Futures is a trading name of Crypto Facilities Ltd. Crypto Facilities Ltd. is a professional trading platform for derivatives on digital assets. Crypto Facilities is a London-based company.

What can I do with the platform?

You can trade digital assets long and short with up to 50x leverage to benefit from price swings or to hedge your price risk.

Are you regulated?

We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 757895).

Does Kraken Futures provide investment advice?

We do not provide investment advice and none of the materials on our website nor any of our correspondence with you must be interpreted as investment advice.

Is Kraken Futures obliged to match my orders?

We reserve the right to refuse an offer to trade via the platform at our sole discretion. We also reserve the right to cancel a previously accepted, but unmatched, offer at our sole discretion or to roll back trades we deem to have happened erroneously.

How much money can I lose?

By trading on the platform, you can lose up to the entire deposits sitting in your trading accounts, for instance if a trade moves against you. However, you cannot lose more than that.

What are the risks associated with using the platform?

When using the platform, you may suffer a loss if prices move against you, if the platform becomes temporarily unavailable or otherwise malfunctions, if your trade counterparty does not post sufficient margin to cover any profits you make, if you want to close out a position prior to maturity but there is insufficient liquidity to do so or if you do not operate the platform correctly, for instance by withdrawing digital assets to an address you do not control.

Positions that are held to maturity are cash settled at the price set by our daily-reference rates.

Settlement results in a taker fee.

Settlements occur on Fridays at 16:00 London time.

The Friday must be a business day in both the UK and the US for settlement to occur, otherwise settlement will occur a day before that is a business day in both the UK and the US.

You can access CSVs containing historical data for settlements and trades on the platform here.

New data will be added to the folder on a monthly basis.

Currencies

Currency

Ticker Symbol

Bitcoin

XBT

Ether

ETH

Litecoin

LTC

Ripple XRP

XRP

BitcoinCash

BCH

US Dollar

USD

Futures and Trading Wallets

Account

Ticker Symbol

Trading Wallets

CASH

Bitcoin-Dollar Futures Margin Account

FI_XBTUSD

Ether-Dollar Futures Margin Account

FI_ETHUSD

Litecoin-Dollar Futures Margin Account

FI_LTCUSD

Ripple-Dollar Futures Margin Account

FI_XRPUSD

Ripple-Bitcoin Futures Margin Account

FV_XRPXBT

Futures

Ticker symbols are defined as:

<Product Code>_<Currency Pair>_<Maturity Date (if applicable)>

where:

Ticker Code Segment

Explanation

<Product Code>

FI = Inverse Futures

FV = Vanilla Futures

PI = Perpetual Inverse Futures

PV = Perpetual Vanilla Futures

IN = Real Time Index

RR = Reference Rate

<Currency Pair>

<Numerator Currency><Denominator Currency>

<Maturity Date>

<YYMMDD> (If Applicable)

EXAMPLE: TICKER SYMBOLS

FI_XBTUSD_171215 -> Inverse Bitcoin-Dollar Futures, maturing 16:00 UTC on 15 Dec 2017

FI_XRPUSD_171215 -> Inverse Ripple-Dollar Futures, maturing 16:00 UTC on 15 Dec 2017

FV_XRPXBT_180316 -> Vanilla Ripple-Bitcoin Futures, maturing 16:00 UTC on 16 Mar 2018

PI_BCHUSD -> Perpetual Inverse Futures on BitcoinCash-Dollar

PV_ETHXBT -> Perpetual Vanilla Futures on Ether-Bitcoin

IN_XBTUSD -> Bitcoin-Dollar Real Time Index

RR_XBTUSD -> Bitcoin-Dollar Reference Rate

Below is a summary of all fees and fee-related questions for Kraken Futures.

Wallet transfers

Transferring funds to and from the Futures wallet is free :)

Trade fee

For any matched trades,the taker side pays a fee and the maker side receives a rebate.

Settlement fee

Holding a Fixed Maturity contract till maturity ( settlement ) results in a taker fee.

Funding rate

While not a fee that is charged by Kraken Futures, positions opened in Perpetual contracts will accumulate a funding rate as an unrealized profit/loss (UPL) which settles every 4 hours at end of the funding period, or when you change your net open position (whichever occurs first).

This is a user-to-user transfer.

If Average Premium > 0, then for the 4 hour period, those in Long positions will continuously pay out to Short positions. This is to incentivize more Short positions, which then push the price closer to the index rate.

If Average Premium < 0, then for the 4 hour period, those in Short positions will continuously pay out to Long positions. This is to incentivize more Long positions, which then push the price closer to the index rate.

Volume discounts

The volume discounts for Kraken spot and margin markets will not carry over to Kraken Futures.

However, Kraken Futures has a Revenue Sharing Program (RSP) in place.The RSP pays out 30% of revenue per Contract Type, with a total minimum of 25,000 USD every week.

Kraken Fee Credits (KFEE)

KFEE will not work on Kraken Futures.