Poloniex and Kraken are both well-known cryptocurrency exchanges in the crypto community. Poloniex, launched in 2014, enables both spot and derivatives trading. It has a 24h spot trading volume of $150 million and a derivatives volume of $13 million.
Kraken, founded in 2011, has a daily spot trading volume of $1.4 billion and a derivatives volume of $425 million. Kraken is one of the oldest and most renowned crypto exchanges worldwide, and a vast majority of crypto users use it.
So, who is the winner of the Poloniex vs. Kraken battle? Let’s find out.
Poloniex vs. Kraken: Supported Cryptocurrencies and Trading Options
Both Poloniex and Kraken support hundreds of cryptocurrencies.
- Poloniex
Poloniex supports at least 200 cryptocurrencies. These include not only renowned names like Bitcoin and Ethereum but also new names like SL, OGN, TLM, and SUPER. Additionally, Poloniex allows you to trade crypto against stablecoins, BTC, TRX, ETH, and BNB.
Poloniex also has margin trading, where you can trade with a 2.5x margin. The following cryptos are available for leveraged trading: ETH, LTC, XRP, XMR, TRX, EOS, DOGE, BCHSV, BCH, and ATOM.
Poloniex also supports derivatives trading. It has a dedicated futures trading platform where you can trade USDT-collateralized perpetual futures contracts. The cryptocurrency exchange offers up to 100x leverage on futures contracts.
- Kraken
The number of cryptocurrencies offered by Kraken is a bit low. It supports around 70 cryptocurrencies, but you’ll find all the popular names like BTC, ETH, BCH, and more. Kraken also supports margin trading with 5x leverage and futures trading with 100x leverage.
Kraken has a wide range of additional features, like staking OTC, account management, and crypto watch. Poloniex, on the other hand, supports lending and TRON-based DeFi assets.
Verdict: Poloniex is the winner here, as it supports more cryptocurrencies than Kraken.
Poloniex vs. Kraken: Trading Fees
Poloniex and Kraken both have a tiered fee structure, and the fee they charge depends on your trade volume and/or native token holding. Let’s look at the fee structures of the two exchanges.
Poloniex
Poloniex has six tiers for traders: Tier 1 – Tier 6. Users with a 30d volume of under $50k or a TRX balance of less than $49 fall into the first tier. The maker/taker fee for Tier 1 traders is 0.145%/0.155%.
Similarly, users with a 30d trading volume of over $50 million are in the sixth tier. The market maker/taker fee for Tier 6 traders is 0.0%/0.04%. You can get an additional discount on the maker/taker fee if you use TRX for transactions.
Like most other exchanges, the Poloniex cryptocurrency exchange doesn’t have a separate fee schedule for futures trading. It charges a flat maker fee and a taker fee of 0.01%/0.075% regardless of the volume.
Poloniex also charges a margin interest fee, which depends on your type of contract and the leverage you use.
Poloniex has three additional tiers: Silver, Gold, and Market Maker. Users in these traders can get further concessions on trading fees.
Poloniex doesn’t charge deposit fees, though there is a small withdrawal fee depending on the asset you withdraw.
Kraken
Kraken also has a tiered fee structure; however, the fee system of Kraken is a bit more complicated. It charges a flat 0.9% fee for buying stablecoins and 1.5% for other assets. Please note that this fee structure applies to Instant Buy only.
When it comes to spot trading, Kraken has nine tiers. Traders with a 30d trading volume of less than $50k are in the first tier, while those with a volume of over $10 million are in the final tier.
The spot market maker/taker fee is 0.16%/0.26% for first-level traders and 0.0%/0.10% for final-level traders. The fee is even lower when you trade stablecoins and FX pairs.
For futures trading, first-level traders have a 30d volume of under $100k, and the fee is 0.02%/0.05%. Final-level traders have a 30d volume of $100 million and a fee of 0.0%/0.01%. There’s also payment card processing, digital wallet processing, and online banking processing fee, ranging from 0.5% to 3.75%.
Verdict: Poloniex is the winner here, as it has low fees.
Poloniex vs. Kraken: Account Funding Methods and Fiat Currencies
Both Poloniex and Kraken allow you to deposit fiat currency to buy crypto. Let’s compare the account funding methods offered by the two exchanges.
Poloniex
Poloniex offers four payment methods to deposit fiat currencies:
- VISA cards
- MasterCard cards
- Apple Pay
- Bank Transfer
Poloniex accepts payments in around 40 currencies. There’s a small fee associated with each deposit. For example, if you buy 1 ETH worth $4,505 (at the time of writing), you’ll need to pay a fee of around $200.
Kraken
Kraken also offers a wide range of account funding methods. If you want to fund your account directly using crypto, you use BTC, ETH, XRP, LTC, ADA, QTUM, ZEC, XMR, and many other coins.
For fiat deposits, the funding methods will depend on the currency you want to deposit. For instance, you deposit USD using wire transfer, Etana Custody, and Silvergate Exchange Network. For GBP, the available payment methods are Etana Custody, FPS, BACS, and CHAPS.
Verdict: It’s a tie, as both the exchanges support fiat currencies for funding your account.
Kraken vs. Poloniex: Margin Trading
Margin trading or leveraged trading is a segment of crypto trading that is gaining a lot of popularity. In this type of trading, traders can buy digital assets worth more than their initial margin.
For instance, let’s say a crypto exchange offers a 3x margin. Here, the trader can buy assets that are worth three times more than what they can buy with the initial margin. This allows traders to maximize their profits. However, this also increases loss potential, making it a risky affair.
Both Kraken and Poloniex provide margin trading. Poloniex offers up to 2.5x leverage, which is lower than the industry standard of 3x. Only seven coins are available for leveraged trading: ETH, BTC, TRX, XRP, XMR, BCH, and BCHSV.
Kraken allows margin trading with up to 5x leverage options, which is double the leverage provided by Poloniex. Kraken currently offers leveraged trading for 16 coins: BTC, ETH, USDT, XMR, ETC, REP, XRP, BCH, XTZ, LTC, ADA, EOS, DASH, TRX, LINK, USDC.
Verdict: Kraken is the winner, as it offers higher leverage and supports more coins for leveraged trading.
Opening Account & Account Limits
Both Poloniex and Kraken offer a seamless account opening process. Let’s see how you can open an account on these exchanges.
Poloniex
To open an account on Poloniex, visit the Poloniex website homepage and click on Sign Up. A Sign-Up form will appear, where you’ll need to enter your email address and password to create an account.
Poloniex doesn’t have mandatory KYC requirements, though unverified users won’t have complete access to the platform.
Unverified or Level 1 users can withdraw up to $10,000 a day and $50,000 a day with two-factor authentication. For verified or Level 2 users, these account balance limits increase to $500k a day and $1 million with 2FA.
Joining Poloniex? Know How to short Bitcoin on Poloniex?
Verified users enjoy additional features like custom withdrawal limits, margin trading, and 100x leverage (vs. 10x), and more.
Kraken
Kraken also offers an effortless sign-up process. Visit the website homepage and click on Get Started. A registration page will open, where you need to enter your email, username, password, and country of residence.
Kraken doesn’t have mandatory KYC requirements. It has four verification levels:
- Starter
- Express
- Intermediate
- Pro
The Starter and Express levels don’t require ID verification, but they have limited features. For example, unverified users can deposit and withdraw only $9k per month and can’t use features like futures trading, dark pool, OTC desk, etc. Verified users get all these features.
Verdict: It’s a tie. Both Poloniex and Kraken have optional KYC requirements.
Ease Of Use & Interface
Poloniex and Kraken both have best-in-class trading platforms with top-notch user interfaces. Let’s draw a head-to-head comparison between the two platforms.
- Poloniex
Poloniex has a seamless and easy-to-use trading terminal. It has a charting platform powered by TradingView covering the right half of the trading terminal. The charting system has all TradingView features, such as multiple chart patterns, indicators, time frames, drawing tools, etc.
The left side of the charting system has a live order book that provides real-time data about the trades in the market. This section helps you learn about the sentiment of the market. The left side of the order book has the order form where you can place buy and sell orders.
You can choose from limit orders (enter the order book) and market orders (enter at market price). The bottom section of the terminal has open orders where you can see your current and past orders.
- Kraken
Kraken’s trading terminal is a bit more powerful than Poloniex. It has a proprietary charting platform covering the left side of the terminal. The charting system has all the essential features, such as multiple chart types, indicators, time frames, and drawing tools.
The right side of the charting system is the market depth section. Next to the market depth section is the order book and a live trades section that lets you see real-time trades. These sections collectively help you analyze the market sentiment.
The trading terminal also has a watchlist where you can add the trading pairs you want to monitor regularly. The right end of the terminal has the order form where you can place Buy and Sell orders, select order types, and choose the margin.
Want to trade on Kraken Futures? Check out our How to trade crypto futures on Kraken guide
Verdict: It’s a tie. Poloniex has a beginner-friendly user interface, making it ideal for beginners. Kraken has an advanced interface ideal for experienced traders. Both Poloniex and Kraken have a mobile app.
Security Features
Security is one of the most crucial factors to consider before choosing a crypto exchange. Let’s compare the security features of the two exchanges.
Poloniex
Poloniex is an exchange based in San Francisco. It’s regulated by the US SEC and provides one of the safest crypto trading experiences to users.
Some security measures taken by Poloniex are:
- Funds stored offline to ensure fund security
- Multi-factor authentication
- IP whitelisting
- SSL encryption
- KYC requirements for advanced features
Since Poloniex is a US-based company, it complies with the US SEC regulations. This makes it one of the safest crypto exchanges out there.
Kraken
Kraken remains to be the industry leader when it comes to safety and security. Here are some security measures implemented by Kraken:
- 95% of all cryptocurrency deposits stored in cold storage wallets
- Platform security with 24/7 server surveillance
- Top-notch information security across platforms
- Regular penetration testing to prevent attempted attacks
- Multi-factor authentication
- No phone/SMS recovery
- Global settings lock to ensure only you can access your account
Kraken implements several other security features to provide a safe trading experience to many users.
Verdict: It’s a tie, as both Poloniex and Kraken take all the essential security measures.
Customer Support
If you are opening an account on a cryptocurrency exchange for the first time, you should find an exchange that offers best-in-class customer support. Both Kraken and Poloniex perform exceptionally well in that department.
Let’s talk about Poloniex first. Poloniex provides customer support in two ways. It has a support center where you can find helpful articles on a variety of topics. If you need further assistance, you can use the chat feature on the support page and raise support tickets.
Kraken is one of the best cryptocurrency exchanges for customer support and service. It has a comprehensive help section where you can find a lot of helpful articles and FAQs.
If you need more help, you can contact the support team. Kraken supports live chat, email, and phone support. Kraken is one of the few crypto exchanges that provide phone support.
Verdict: Kraken is the winner, as it provides phone support.
- Is Kraken a Safe Cryptocurrency Exchange?
Yes, Kraken is one of the safest crypto exchanges in the world. It takes all the security measures needed to provide a hassle-free and safe experience to traders. Therefore, you can use Kraken without any worries.
- Is Poloniex Safe?
Poloniex is a very safe cryptocurrency exchange. Established in the US, Poloniex is regulated by the US SEC and complies with all the legal regulations. The exchange implements all the essential security features, making it a completely safe and risk-free exchange.
Conclusion
Both Poloniex and Kraken are high-quality, user-friendly, and feature-rich cryptocurrency exchanges, and there’s no clear winner.
If low trading and withdrawal fees, ease of use, and additional security are your priorities, you can opt for Poloniex.
In contrast, more trading options, a robust Ethereum platform, powerful blockchain technology, and top-notch customer service are the main advantages of Kraken.
Hence, you can choose an exchange that best fits your needs.
Please note that this article is not financial advice. Contact your financial advisor and get investment advice before making a decision.
See how Poloniex and Kraken compares to other exchanges:
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- Kraken vs ByBit
- Poloniex vs Binance
- Kraken vs KuCoin
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- Poloniex vs KuCoin
