CEX.IO vs Kraken | Why Kraken Is Much Better Overall
Jack Moreau
Apr 2024
10 min read
Fact checked
If you're looking to trade cryptocurrency, you may be wondering which exchange to choose: CEX.io vs Kraken? Our team has done the research to help you decide. We've compared signup and KYC processes, available countries, trading fees, products, user experience, and more to determine which exchange is the best fit for you.
eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.
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eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.
eToro USA LLC: Investments are subject to market risk. Including the possible loss of principal. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest.
When it comes to trading cryptocurrencies, there are several exchanges to choose from, each with their unique features and benefits. Two middle of the pack exchanges in the market today are Cex.io and Kraken.
Cex.io was founded in 2013 and is a cryptocurrency exchange registered in Gibraltar with headquarters in London, UK. The exchange is available in most countries around the world, including 48 US states.
CEX.io exchange
The exchange supports +130 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, ADA, UNI, SOL and DOGE.
Cex.io has a user-friendly interface, making it accessible to both beginner and advanced traders. With over 4 million registered users around the world, Cex.io is building up momentum and steam as a more popular exchange.
Kraken was founded even earlier in 2011 in San Francisco, California by Jesse Powell.
Kraken is the second largest exchange in the United States after Coinbase and is known for being secure, reliable and regulated.
Kraken exchange
Kraken offers various services such as spot trading, margin trading, futures trading staking and a few additional products.
The exchange caters to both beginners and experienced traders. Kraken also provides institutional-grade custody services, appealing to both retail and institutional investors.
With over 9 million users mainly based across North America and Europe, Kraken has become a top choice for investors looking for a safe harbour.
Kraken is of course also available on Android and IOS where it has received over 1 million downloads with good ratings.
Kraken app
Cex.Io vs Kraken Signup & KYC
When it comes to signing up for a cryptocurrency exchange, there are many factors to consider with one of them being KYC requirements. Let's take a closer at how Cex.io and Kraken handle KYC.
Beginning with CEX.io, they require all of their users to pass KYC in order to use their services. Signing up for both exchanges is quick and easy with CEX.io only requiring an email, password and country of residence.
Once users have open an account, they can then move on to complete the KYC process which involves uploading a government ID and a selfie with that document. Then it's up to Cex.io to verify these documents which can take a day or two in the slowest of cases.
CEX.io signup
Moving on to Kraken, it also requires all of it's users to pass KYC to use their products and services.
Signing up is a fast and simple process and users can then move on to complete the starter verification which only requires providing some personal information.
This include full name, country of residence, address and once completed, users can deposit cryptocurrencies and begin buying and selling.
Full KYC is required for those that want to deposit fiat currencies however and here you will need to upload a government ID as well.
Kraken KYC
As we can see, both exchanges have similar KYC requirements and signup processes. For users who are interested in trading without KYC being a requirements, we recommend two exchanges in particular in OKX and Phemex.
Cex.Io vs Kraken Products & Services
Cex.io offers its users a range of trading services including spot and margin trading with BTC, ETH, or USDT as underlying collateral. It also offers trading APIs, instant buy with credit card, staking, earning and a debit card.
CEX.io products and services
The user experience on Cex.io has improved and is quite good these days. It's easy to use and navigate for beginners while there are features that more sophisticated traders will find useful.
Savings on CEX.io
In terms of trading volume and leverage on Cex.io, the trading volume is not great and frequently under $10 million while users can take up to 10X leverage on margin trading.
The product range offer on Kraken is somewhat similar to Cex.io. While Kraken is more constrained by being a US based entity, it does offer quite a few products for beginners, traders and institutions alike.
This includes spot trading for hundreds of cryptocurrencies, cash-settled futures with monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and perpetual maturities, and margin trading.
Margin trading on Kraken exchange
Kraken also offers staking (for non-US users) for a wide range of cryptocurrencies such as ATOM, SOL and many others. Kraken also recently introduced their NFT marketplace where users can buy and sell some of the most popular and expensive NFTs.
NFTs on Kraken
For institutional clients, Kraken also offers an OTC desk and 24/7 account management teams. They also offer some leveraged products for more sophisticated traders.The max leverage that users can take on Kraken is 50X and 5X in terms of margin leverage.
Kraken exchange interface
In terms of liquidity, Kraken frequently is in the top 10 with daily spot trading volumes in the range of $300 to $600 million.
The user experience on Kraken is good as it has been designed with beginners in mind. This makes the exchange easy to navigate and easy to buy and sell cryptocurrencies for everyday users.
When it comes to trading fees, CEX.IO and Kraken have different approaches. Let's take a closer look at each of these crypto exchanges.
CEX.io offers a spot trading fee of 0.15% for makers and 0.25% for takers. The exchange further offers rebates for users that trade above $10,000 per month. For those that do, they will pay 0.13% and 0.15% as makers and takers.
CEX.io trading fees
On the other hand, Kraken offers a spot maker fee of 0.16% and a taker fee of 0.26%. Kraken also offers futures trading with a maker fee of 0.02% and a taker fee of 0.05%.
What's more, Kraken offers discounts for high-volume traders who exceed $50,000 in monthly trade volume.
Kraken spot fees
Kraken and Cex.io thus offer more or less the same spot fees and similar trading rebates while Kraken also offers futures at very competitive fees.
This small difference still makes Kraken the clear winner overall as it's overall the better exchange to use.
When it comes to depositing funds on exchanges, two crucial factors are the number of supported fiat currencies and available deposit methods. Both Cex.io and Kraken offer a diverse range of fiat currencies and deposit options.
Let's start with Cex.io. This exchange supports the deposit of three major fiat currencies, USD, EUR, and GBP.
The available deposit methods on Cex.io include SWIFT, Wire, SEPA, Faster Payments (FSP), Credit/Debit Card and payment providers like Neteller and PayPal.
CEX.io fiat deposit
Deposits via Swift and Wire comes with a $2.99 fee, depositing via FSP incur a 2.99 GBP fee, SEPA deposits come with a 2.99 EUR fee and credit/debit cards come with a 3-4% service fee.
While it's good that these deposit options are available, the fees are on the higher side.
Kraken offers support for a wider range of seven fiat currencies which includes USD, EUR, CAD, AUD, GBP, CHF, and JPY. Some of the deposit options offered by Kraken include Fedwire, SWIFT, ACH, SEPA and FPS.
Kraken offers free ACH deposits for USD, EUR, and CAD via bank transfers (ACH) and SEPA. This means that users can deposit funds without incurring any fees.
Kraken fiat deposits
In conclusion, both Cex.io and Kraken offer a wide range of deposit options. Kraken however offers more fiat currencies deposits and either no cost at all or at lower fees than Cex.io.
When it comes to withdrawing funds from cryptocurrency exchanges, the withdrawal methods and fees can vary greatly.
Cex.Io offers fiat currency withdrawals for the three currencies it supports which are USD, EUR, and GBP. USD withdrawals can be made via SWIFT or wire transfer, EUR withdrawals via SEPA and GBP withdrawals via Faster Payments.
Withdrawal fees on Cex.Io range from $2.99 via bank withdrawals to 3% of the withdrawal amount if it's by credit/debit card.
For cryptocurrency withdrawals, Cex.Io charges a flat fee of 0.0005 BTC for Bitcoin and a high fee of 0.006 ETH for Ethereum.
Kraken, on the other hand, offers fiat withdrawal for all seven currencies they support: USD, CAD, EUR, GBP, CHF, AUD, and JPY.
Withdrawal options include ACH, SWIFT, SEPA, and FPS with fees being as follows ACH (free), SEPA Fee (0.9 EUR), SWIFT ($4) and FPS (1.95 GBP).
Kraken's cryptocurrency withdrawal fees are also lower than Cex.io's, with a fee of 0.00001 BTC for Bitcoin and 0.0035 ETH for Ethereum.
Overall, while both Cex.io and Kraken offer a variety of withdrawal options for fiat and cryptocurrencies, Kraken clearly offers more currencies, withdrawal methods and lower fees.
In conclusion, both Cex.io and Kraken are popular exchanges with unique features and benefits.
Cex.io has over 130 cryptocurrencies and a user-friendly interface while Kraken offers institutional-grade custody services and supports over 190 cryptocurrencies.
Both exchanges have similar KYC requirements and signup processes and when it comes to trading fees, they are very similar as well.
CEX.io charges 0.15% for makers and 0.25% for takers while Kraken is almost identical with 0.16% for makers and 0.26% for takers.
They both offer a similar range of product such as spot and margin trading, earning and staking of digital assets while Kraken offers a few more products such as an NFT marketplace and custody solutions for institutions.
In terms of fiat deposit and withdrawal options, both exchanges offer a wide range options with Kraken having the edge across the board with more fiat currencies, deposit options and lower fees.
This makes our verdict even clearer that Kraken is the better exchange than Cex.io across most categories.
eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.
eToro USA LLC: Investments are subject to market risk. Including the possible loss of principal. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest.
eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.
eToro USA LLC: Investments are subject to market risk. Including the possible loss of principal. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest.
Author
Jack Moreau
Jack is a crypto writer and reviewer who has been active in the space since he caught the crypto bug in 2017. With a passion for trying out new shiny things, Jack is always eager to try the latest cryptocurrency exchanges, wallets or DeFi applications.
