This in-depth analysis compares two of the best crypto exchanges in the world, Kraken vs Binance.

Both crypto platforms have various products and services that cater to the needs of beginner traders and more experienced investors as well.

In this Kraken vs Binance review, we’ll break down the two exchanges’ backgrounds, UX and interfaces, trading features, products, fees, and available assets. We’ll also address their security measures, transparency towards users, regulatory statuses, and their most notable pros and cons to help you decide which crypto exchange is the best choice for your needs in 2025.

Kraken vs Binance – Backgrounds and Offerings

In our Kraken vs Binance guide introduction, we’ll highlight the platforms’ launch years, global reach, and their most important features.

What is Binance?

Binance is the biggest crypto exchange in the world. The centralized exchange was launched in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ.

Digital Assets Available, Users, Reach

Binance has more than 350 digital assets to offer to its global users.
The exchange has over 273 million users as of May 2025.
The global crypto exchange is currently available in more than 100 countries.

Trading Volume and Total Assets

In the past six months, Binance’s average 24-hour trading volume surpassed $20 billion, which is the highest trading volume of all the crypto exchanges that we’ve analyzed.

Binance has over $138,2 billion in total assets, nearing its ATH close to $150 billion reached in December 2024.

DeFi Llama data - Binance Total Assets — DeFi Llama data – Binance Total Assets

Core Products, Services, Features

Binance’s top products and services include the following:

Binance Wallet
The Binance Pay platform
Basic and advanced trading services
Futures trading
Simple and Advanced Earn products
Staking services
Launchpool and Launchpad platforms
Various campaigns and rewards platforms, including the HODLer Airdrop portal and Megadrop
A NFT Marketplace
Education and research platforms

The crypto exchange’s most important features that make it stand out in the ecosystem include the following:

Increased security with strict KYC rules
Compliance with regulations and 21 global licenses
Strong user asset security via the SAFU fund
High asset transparency via Proof-of-Reserves
A branch in the US via Binance US
Low, competitive trading fees

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What is Kraken?

Kraken is a US-based centralized crypto exchange that was founded in 2011 by Jesse Powell. It was one of the first Bitcoin exchanges listed on the Bloomberg Terminal.

Digital Assets Available, Users, Reach

Kraken has 420 cryptocurrencies available on its platform, according to its official website.
The crypto exchange has over 15 million users.
Kraken is supported in more than 190 countries.

Trading Volume and Total Assets

Kraken crypto exchange has over $207 billion in quarterly trading volume. The average 24-hour trading volume of Kraken in the past 6 months is around $500 million, topping $1.6 billion on February 4th, 2025.

As of 2024, Kraken held over $42,8 billion in total assets on the platform.

Core Products, Services, Features

The most important products and services available on Kraken include the following:

The Kraken Wallet
Kraken Pro, offering tools for advanced traders
Tools for institutional investors
Auto Earn
Recurring buys
Crypto staking
Margin trading
Futures trading

The most important features that Kraken offers its users include the following:

Industry-leading security
Deep liquidity and volume
Proof-of-Reserves
Flexible funding options
24/7 customer support
Mission-driven values to boost user trust

According to our Kraken vs Binance review, the two exchanges have a similar number of crypto offerings on their platform, and while Binance is available to more users compared to Kraken, the latter has a wider global reach, being available in over 190 countries, compared to Binance which is available in over 100 countries.

Both platforms are available in the US, which is an important feature, boosting crypto adoption in the region.

Regarding product offerings, both exchanges offer a wide palette of options for beginners and more advanced traders.

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Kraken vs Binance: UX and UI

According to our Kraken vs Binance analysis, both platforms are user-friendly, easy to navigate, and offer complex data about their offerings to users.

Regarding the onboarding process, both crypto exchanges are focused on high security.

Kraken allows users to create a personal or a business account, asking for a user’s email and password. To activate your account, you have to open a link sent by the exchange to your email address.

Both Binance and Kraken are using strong security measures to protect users via KYC verification.

Once you are verified, both crypto exchanges allow you to sign into your account, deposit/buy crypto, and start trading and enjoying the platforms ‘ products and services.

Both platforms’ dashboards are complex, yet easy to understand, providing in-depth data about the exchange’s offerings and products, while keeping you informed via valuable information and learning sections.

Both platforms performed well while analyzing them in our Kraken vs Binance guide.

Kraken vs Binance: Trading Features

The two platforms offer trading options for beginners and more advanced traders.

Kraken offers you two platforms to get started, allowing you to switch between them at any time to access all features:

Kraken – for simple investing
Kraken Pro – for advanced trading

Kraken’s Simple Investing provides the following:

Instant crypto buy and sell
Automated recurring orders
The option to pay with a card, Apple and Google Pay

The exchange’s Advanced Trading provides you with the following options:

Advanced order types
Charting and drawing tools
Customizable trade layouts

Binance also offers options for both basic trading and advanced trading:

Binance’s basic options include the following:

Spot
Margin
P2P
Convert and Block Trade

Binance’s advanced options include the following:

The Binance Alpha platform, showcasing projects with potential to grow in Web3
Trading Bots
Copy Trading
APIs

As seen above, both crypto exchanges have options for beginners and more experienced traders.

Regarding the Kraken vs Binance trading features, we’ll address their trading types and related features of both exchanges.

Buying Crypto/Spot Trading on Kraken vs Binance

Kraken’s spot market trading platform allows you to buy and sell crypto. To buy crypto, you have to sign up on the exchange and start with just $10. You can choose a payment method, including:

Bank transfers
Debit or credit cards
Apple Pay
Google Pay
PayPal

Binance Spot allows you to trade crypto and offers real-time data on prices, technical indicators, charts, analysis, and more.

Binance Spot Trading - BTC/USDT — Binance Spot Trading – BTC/USDT

Binance’s Buy Crypto is similar to Kraken’s, allowing you to choose the fiat you want to use to buy digital assets. Among the payment options, Binance offers Revolut, Visa, Mastercard, Paymonade, or other options depending on the buyer’s region.

Trading crypto in spot markets is similar and easy on both exchanges, according to our Kraken vs Binance review.

Futures Trading on Kraken vs Binance

Kraken’s futures trading allows flexible capital efficiency for users. The futures market fee is 0.02%, and the taker fee is 0.05%.

The exchange offers USD linear perpetual futures with access to over 350 perpetual futures.

You can also use Kraken’s FX perpetual futures (the real-time forex trading on Kraken Pro, with up to 50x leverage).

Binance Futures includes contracts settled in USDT, USDC, and other crypto, offering USDT options with limited downside and affordable entry.

Binance features Inverse Perpetuals that are available as COIN-margined contracts, while Kraken offers inverse crypto-collateral perpetual and fixed maturity derivatives contracts. Kraken offers options trading via its OTC derivatives desk.

Here is a side-by-side futures trading comparison for Kraken vs Binance:

Feature	Kraken	Binance
Perpetual Futures Type	USD linear perpetual futures	USDT, USDC, and other crypto-margined contracts
FX Perpetual Futures	Yes – real-time forex trading on Kraken Pro, with up to 50x leverage
Inverse Perpetuals	Yes – crypto-collateral perpetual and fixed maturity derivatives contracts	Yes – available as COIN-margined contracts
Options Trading	Yes – via OTC derivatives desk (institutional/high-net-worth clients only)	Yes – USDT options with limited downside and affordable entry

Futures trading is similar on both exchanges, but Kraken also provides FX Perpetual Futures, while Binance lacks this option.

Margin Trading on Kraken vs Binance

Margin trading involves using funds offered by a third party to conduct asset transactions, allowing traders to get more funds and support them in using positions.

Kraken’s Margin Trading can be found in the Kraken Pro platform and allows trading with 5x leverage, and requires identity verification to trade.

It’s also worth noting that Kraken Derivatives offers you the choice of cross/isolated margin so that risk management can be effectively tailored to meet your trading strategy.

Binance Margin allows you to boost profits with leverage and offers:

Over 600 trading pairs
High liquidity
Responsible trading
Insurance fund
Cooling off period
Reliable security

Binance also offers both cross-margin and isolated margin.

In terms of Margin trading, Kraken vs Binance provide similar options.

Advanced Features on Kraken vs Binance – Copy Trading and Trading Bots

In this section of our Kraken vs Binance review, we’ll analyze the advanced trading features that both platforms have to offer.

Kraken vs Binance: Copy Trading

Kraken does not have Copy Trading integrated into its platform, while Binance’s option includes Futures and Spot sections, along with valuable info on how to copy trade.

Kraken vs Binance: Trading Bots

Kraken doesn’t have a Trading Bot integrated, however, the crypto exchange supports the integration of trading bots via its API infrastructure.

On the other hand, Binance’s Trading Bots section allows the creation of bots. When the price drops and hits a buy order, the bot will place a sell order, and when the price rises, hitting the sell order, the bot will place a buy order.

However, Kraken has the “Take Profit/Stop Loss (bracket) orders – available when placing Market or Limit orders on any Kraken Pro futures market. This allows you to configure exit points (TP and SL) before you submit an order to open a position, whether this means exiting the trade in profit or stopping out to limit losses.

Binance’s Trading Bots section includes a rebalancing bot, Spot DCA, and Spot algo orders as well.

Overall, regarding Copy Trading and Trading Bots options, according to our Kraken vs Binance review, Binance is the winner as it has the Copy Trading option, which Kraken lacks.

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Kraken vs Binance: Fee Comparison

Below, we’ll compare the Kraken vs Binance maker/taker fees, spot and futures trading fees for both platforms. We’ll also address potential hidden fees and withdrawal fees that the exchanges have.

Here’s a fee comparison between spot and futures.

Spot Trading Fees for Kraken vs Binance

Kraken uses a maker/taker fee schedule with volume incentives based on your activity in the past 30 days. For instance, for spot trading between $0 and $10,000, the maker fee is 0.25%, while the taker fee is 0.4%.

For 30-day volume above $10,000, the maker fee is 0.2%, while the taker fee is 0.35%. A 30-day volume above $50,000 will involve a maker fee of 0.14% and a taker fee of 0.24%.

Both maker and taker fees continue to drop as the 30-day volume increases. For a 30-day volume above $100,000,000, the maker fee is 0% and the taker fee is 0.08%.

Kraken Spot Crypto - Maker/Taker Fees — Kraken Spot Crypto – Maker/Taker Fees

Binance’s Spot and Margin fees are settled for regular users and various VIP levels with BNB holdings discounts.

For regular users (with 30-day trading volume below $1 million), the maker/taker fee is 0.1% without a BNB discount and 0.75%/0.75% with a BNB discount.

The VIP 1 level (with a 30-day volume above $1 million) and a minimum of 25 BNB, the maker/taker fee is 0.09%/0.1% without a BNB discount and 0.0675%/0.075% with a BNB discount. The fees continue to decrease as the VIP level surges, and the BNB holdings surge as well.

Binance’s VIP 9 level (with a 30-day trading volume above $4 billion) and BNB holdings of at least 5,500 BNB will involve a maker/taker fee of 0.01%/0.023% without a BNB discount and 0.00825%/0.01725% with a BNB discount.

Binance Spot and Margin Maker/Taker Fees

Overall, Binance has lower spot trading fees compared to Kraken.

Futures Trading Fees for Kraken vs Binance

The Kraken Futures Fees schedule also offers volume incentives based on your futures trading activity in the past 30 days.

For instance, for 30-day volume below $2,5 million, the maker fee is 0.02% and the taker fee is 0.05%. For 30-day volume above $1 billion, the maker fee is -0.005% and the taker fee is 0.01%.

Binance’s fees for USDT are also settled for regular users and various VIP levels. ETH/BTC futures contracts will also follow the USDT fee schedule.

For regular users (with a 30-day trading volume lower than $15 million, and a minimum of 1 BNB), the maker/taker fee is 0.02%/0.05% without a BNB discount and 0.018%/0.045% with a BNB 10% discount.

For VIP 1 users (with a 30-day trade volume above $15 million) and BNB holdings of at least 25 BNB, the maker/taker fee structure is 0.016%/0.04% without a BNB discount, and 0.0144%/0.036% with a BNB discount.

VIP 9 users (with a 30-day trade volume of at least $25 billion), and at least 5,500 BNB, will have a maker/taker fee of 0%/0.017% without a BNB discount, and a 0%/0.0153% with a BNB discount.

Binance has lower fees for futures trading compared to Kraken.

Kraken vs Binance: Withdrawal Fees and Potential Hidden Fees

Kraken’s deposit and withdrawal fees are based on the method and currency used, while funding fees and be both static and dynamic, reflecting the network and processing fees associated with transactions and other costs.

Binance does not charge deposit fees, and withdrawals involve flat fees paid to cover the transaction costs of moving crypto out of the user account.

Considering that these two crypto exchanges are centralized and regulated, they shouldn’t have hidden fees.

Regarding fees in general, Binance is your best bet, because it has lower overall fees compared to Kraken, according to our analysis of Kraken vs Binance.

Kraken vs Binance: Security and Trust

Both Kraken and Binance emphasize user trust and security, using multiple transparency features, including Proof-of-Reserves, and KYC measures during the onboarding process.

Kraken Security and Transparency

Kraken features the following security measures for its users:

Protecting user funds via sophisticated measures to prevent fund/information theft
A comprehensive approach to cybersecurity – ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification
Ability to meet the highest international security standards
KYC verification
E-mail confirmations for new withdrawal addresses
Configurable account timeout
PGP signed and encrypted email
Global settings time lock for extreme security
SSL encryption
Real-time monitoring for suspicious activity
Bug bounty program

Kraken’s transparency towards users is highlighted by the exchange’s PoR, proving that user funds are safe.

Binance Security and Transparency

Binance employs the following security measures:

2FA
KYC verification
Biometrics
Device management
Whitelisting
Strong regulation compliance (21 global licenses)
Storing user assets in cold wallets
Securing user assets via SAFU (Binance’s Secure Asset Fund for Users, valued at $1 billion)

Binance provides PoR, showing user assets are fully backed by at least 1:1.

As a conclusion regarding Kraken vs Binance security and user trust, both exchanges provide high security measures and fund transparency.

Past Incidents of Kraken vs Binance

No major hack has hit Kraken so far, but the exchange suffered a bug exploit in 2024 – the bug was found by a security researcher and led to almost $3 million stolen from the exchange’s treasuries.

The most notable Binance security incident took place on May 7, 2019, when hackers stole 7,000 Bitcoins in a single transaction.

Both crypto exchanges are continually making efforts to strengthen security measures and prevent bad actors from attacking them.

Kraken vs Binance: Earn and Passive Income Products

Both crypto exchanges provide various passive income products for users.

Kraken Earn, Staking, Rewards

Earn

The Auto Earn feature generates passive income from idle assets.

Staking and Rewards

The Staking feature offers users the ability to earn staking rewards up to 17%.
Bonded Staking can boost your yield on unused assets by temporarily locking up crypto for an agreed term.
ETH restaking allows you to double-stake your ETH on Kraken and earn extra rewards.

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Binance Earn, Staking, Loans

Earn

Binance’s Earn section provides Simple and Advanced Earn options.

Simple Earn – Allows you to earn passive income from Savings and Staking.
Advanced Earn offers Dual Investment and On-Chain Yields.

Staking

Binance offers staking services for SOL and ETH.

Loans

The exchange provides three types of loans:

Flexible Rate Loan – Allowing you to borrow for Spot/Margin/Futures
VIP Loan – For institutional investors
Fixed Rate Loan – Allowing you to borrow and supply at chosen fixed interest rates

Both Binance and Kraken provide similar earn and passive income products, but Kraken lacks the loan option for users.

Kraken vs Binance: Launchpool and Launchpad Availability

While Kraken lacks a Launchpool or Launchpad platform, Binance’s Launchpool and Launchpad allow you to launch projects, helping and advising teams on how to best issue and launch tokens.

According to our previous Binance review, Launchpol features over 60 projects, and most of them provide you with 4% of the supply.

Regulatory Status and Jurisdictions for Kraken vs Binance

Kraken is available in Europe, North America, Australia, Bermuda, and Singapore, while prohibited regions include Afghanistan, Belarus, Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Libya, North Korea, Russia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria.

Binance is not available in Canada, the Netherlands, Cuba, the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea (“DPRK”), Iran, Syria, the Crimea region, and any non-government-controlled areas of Ukraine.

Both crypto exchanges are fully regulated, and they follow strict legislation rules. Kraken and Binance are both available in the US, and Kraken can be used in over 190 countries, while Binance is available in over 100 countries.

Kraken has a wider reach compared to Binance, but Binance has more users than Kraken.

Final Verdict: Kraken vs Binance – Pros and Cons

Below, we present a table with the most significant pros and cons for Kraken vs Binance, based on our detailed review of the two exchanges.

Category	Kraken – Pros	Kraken – Cons	Binance – Pros	Binance – Cons
Founded	Established in 2011, long-standing reputation	Older platform, not as fast-moving as Binance	Founded in 2017, rapid innovation and growth	Shorter history, more regulatory controversies
User Base & Global Reach	Trusted in 190+ countries, strong US presence	Smaller user base (~15M) vs Binance	Massive global reach (273M+ users), high liquidity	Limited access in regions like the US (via Binance.US)
Assets & Trading Volume	420+ assets, strong security, transparent reserves	Lower trading volume than Binance	350+ assets, $20B+ daily volume, very liquid	Occasionally delists lower-volume coins
User Experience (UX/UI)	Clean interface, Kraken Pro is powerful yet user-friendly	Advanced features can be hidden for beginners	Easy switching between basic/advanced UI	Can feel cluttered and overwhelming for new users
Trading Features	Spot, margin, futures, FX markets, regulated options	No copy trading or bots	Spot, margin, futures, convert, bots, P2P	Can be overwhelming due to too many features
Passive Income & Staking	Transparent staking, up to 17% APY, ETH restaking	Fewer product options than Binance	Wide range of passive income tools, Simple & Advanced Earn	Some high-yield options involve more risk
Advanced Tools	Institutional-grade tools, strong API support	Less automation and innovation compared to Binance	Copy trading, trading bots, Launchpad for new tokens	Can encourage risky strategies for novices
Fees (Spot & Futures)	Transparent structure, volume-based reductions	Higher base fees (spot up to 0.26%)	Industry-low fees (as low as 0.00825% with BNB)	Requires BNB holding for best discounts
Security Measures	ISO 27001, cold storage, strong KYC, minimal breaches	Advanced security limits flexibility for some	$1B SAFU fund, active threat mitigation	History of major hacks, a larger attack target
Past Incidents		2024 exploit	SAFU covered $570M BNB hack, rapid recovery	Multiple major hacks in the past
Transparency & Regulation	Fully regulated in the US, strong PoR	Stricter KYC may limit privacy	21 licenses, regional compliance efforts	Ongoing scrutiny from global regulators
Unique Features	FX futures, strong live support, Kraken Pro tools	Less innovation in gamified/trendy features	Trading bots, Launchpad, referral rewards	Might seem complicated to novice users

After analyzing Kraken vs Binance exchanges, while both provide complex products and offerings, Binance might be more well-suited for more experienced traders and could seem more complicated for beginners. Both exchanges have a vast reach, but Kraken’s is wider. However, Binance has more users, mirroring increased trust.

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FAQ

Kraken vs Binance: Which Crypto Exchange is Best for Trading?

Choosing the best exchange depends on your needs and trading experience. Binance has more complex offerings, and it might be more well-suited if you’re an experienced trader.

However, Kraken Pro also provides advanced trading options. Binance offers a wider range of passive income tools, while Kraken lacks Copy Trading and Trading Bots.