Coinbase and Kraken are two leading high-profile crypto exchange platforms in this world. Each exchange platform enables users to purchase different cryptos with fiat money, such as the Euro and the U.S. dollar.
Moreover, both cater to novice and experienced investors. This means, both low and high-volume traders enjoy the low-fee services of Kraken as well as their high trading limits.
Additionally, new investors from the United States are known for appreciating the convenience and ease of Coinbase’s funding options as well as digital wallets. But when it comes to a Kraken vs Coinbase situation, which option should you choose in 2024?
While both Coinbase and Kraken come with distinctive features such as ease of use, fees, security, and several other features, each platform has an appealing advantage for different investors.
Kraken offers flat buying fees, which happens to be a solid advantage for relatively lower-volume traders. On the other hand, Coinbase offers easy funding alternatives such as debit cards and PayPal, which perform for traders in the United States.
Stay tuned to find out!
Kraken Vs Coinbase: Features
Each crypto exchange typically caters to first-timers and industry investors alike. In spite of that, Kraken has robust features well-suited for investors across the globe.
Even traders from the United States who do not care about giving up on convenience for a low fee, as well as other additional services, will like Kraken. Similarly, Coinbase’s digital alternative facilitates processes for various investors in the United States.
With both Coinbase and Kraken, you will get:
1. Availability:
Coinbase provides trading in more than a hundred countries, while Kraken is available in 176 countries. Both platforms provide varying functions – in both cases, the features vary from location to location.
For example, Coinbase is not available to the residents of Hawaii, and Kraken is not available in Washington or New York.
2. Customer Service:
Both platforms offer customer support for everyone around the clock via live support chat. Now, the availability of support can decrease while waiting times can increase during days with high traffic. Moreover, both platforms offer question-and-answer centers and help center guides.
3. Margin trading:
Kraken provides margin trading with leverage going upto five times, which is considered to be an average in the entire industry. In early 2020, Coinbase added this feature and offered limited availability at literally 3 times leverage. But then, in November 2020, the platform promptly disabled this feature.
4. Mobile apps:
Each exchange comes with a highly-rated mobile app that offers all the features that are already available on the web browser version. However, the Kraken application is not available in one territory or five countries.
Additional Features:
Kraken provides Cryptowatch. It is a sort of trading terminal which generates as well as analyzes data on more than 200 crypto markets. Moreover, the free service also allows traders to track movements in price as well as market trends across different platforms.
It also helps traders to set specific price alerts. Interestingly, investors can easily upgrade this particular service. For upgradation, users have to pay one credit/alert for a relatively more timely notice.
Similarly, Coinbase also has an additional feature.
The platform basically offers a hot wallet to the users that they can use for depositing, storing, and withdrawing currency.
Moreover, you do not have to be a user of Coinbase to access this wallet. As a result, this is perfect for investors and traders who go back and forth between different cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies.
Also, Kraken provides their users with a digital wallet of sorts for storing coins between different purchases but doesn’t really offer any personal wallet service.
Kraken Vs Coinbase: Supported Currencies
Both Coinbase and Kraken support JPY, CHF, GBP, AUD, CAD, EUR, and USD fiat currencies.
While Kraken has 97 available cryptocurrencies for trading purposes, Coinbase has more than 120. Moreover, each of them does offer different options. As a result, if you are looking for anything specific, you can search both platforms to find what you are looking for!
For example, Kraken offers Icon (ICX) and Flow (FLOW). You can easily trade Yearn Finance (YFI) and Filecoin (FIL) on Coinbase but not Siacoin (SC) or Tron (TRX).
Apart from Bitcoin, the most well-known cryptos supported by Coinbase and Kraken include:
- Litecoin (LTC),
- Ethereum (ETH),
- Chainlink (LINK),
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and
- Cardano (ADA).
Kraken Vs Coinbase: Ease Of Use
Coinbase and Kraken’s user experience ranks high. Both these platforms offer a dependable experience on mobile devices and desktops.
Kraken’s strict security measures are an added advantage for big investors. However, the precautions can turn out to be a minor issue for crypto newbies or investors seeking quick trading options.
On the other hand, Coinbase provides its users with a quick startup method, keeping both funding options and trading features simple. That makes it easy for new traders to trade without worry.
So, Coinbase allows crypto newbies to begin trading with just a phone number verification. Moreover, with added verification steps, users can easily unlock higher limits and account levels.
Kraken Vs Coinbase: Which One Should You Choose In 2024?
The Kraken Vs Coinbase debate ultimately boils down to what suits you more! While both Kraken and Coinbase are highly tested crypto exchange platforms, the benefits of Coinbase are relatively more specific to traders in the United States. However, overall, Kraken happens to be the best for global traders.
Moreover, it has perhaps some of the lowest transaction fees in the whole country and provides solid security for its users. In addition, the platform provides customer support in 190 countries, whereas Coinbase happens to be available in more than a hundred countries.
But as a result of a settlement in 2023 with the U.S. SEC, Kraken is actually ending the staking services to clients based in the United States. Therefore, traders will have to check out other platforms like Coinbase for the same services.
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