Uphold vs Kraken | Best Exchange For Newbies & Professionals?
Jack Moreau
Feb 2024
9 min read
Fact checked
Uphold vs Kraken: Which exchange is right for you? We've gone through the details to help you decide. We've taken a look at KYC requirements, country availability, products and features, trading fees, deposit methods and much more!
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.
Uphold and Kraken are two of the most popular beginner friendly exchanges in the market that have quickly gained a significant userbase.
Uphold was founded in 2013 by Halsey Minor and is a versatile digital money platform that enables users to trade various financial instruments, including cryptocurrencies, precious metals, and fiat currencies.
Uphold exchange
With over 10 million users and available in 184 countries, Uphold has gained popularity for its user-friendly interface, diverse range of assets and commitment to safety and transparency.
The platform supports more than 300 cryptocurrencies and altcoins, including Bitcoin and Ethereum and a lot of altcoins.
With it's unique "anything-to-anything" trading feature, users can seamlessly convert between different asset classes in a single transaction.
Uphold is also available on Android and IOS where it has over 5 million downloads with a stellar 4.7 rating based on 40,000 reviews.
Uphold app
Kraken was founded as early as 2011 by Jesse Powell and registered in the US and based in San Francisco.
Kraken is also known for being an exchange that puts high emphasis on security, reliability and regulatory compliance.
Kraken exchange
With over 9 million users and available in 190 countries, Kraken offers various services such as spot trading, margin trading, futures trading and staking, catering to both beginners and experienced traders.
The platform supports over 190 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cosmos, Avalanche, Solana and many others.
The Kraken app has been downloaded over 1 million times and has a strong 4.3-star rating with over 20,000 reviews.
Kraken app
Uphold vs Kraken Signup & KYC
Let's continue by having a look at the signup process and KYC requirements of Uphold and Kraken.
Uphold has a quick and straightforward signup process that requires users to provide only their email, password and country of residence.
Uphold signup process
Once the account has been opened, users must complete KYC verification by providing additional personal information and government ID.
Uphold KYC
Uphold's verification process can be completed in as little as a few hours but can take up to 24 hours to process in some cases.
Kraken also has a swift signup process that takes less than a minute to complete. Similar to Uphold, Kraken also requires all customers to verify their identity through KYC before using their services.
Kraken KYC
Basic verification can be achieved in less than 2 minutes and requires providing personal information.
For the intermediate verification which also requires an ID, that can takes up to 1-2 business days to get verified by Kraken.
Uphold vs Kraken Products & Services
While Uphold offers a smaller range of products compared to most exchanges, it focuses mainly on creating an uber simple buying experience for beginners.
This means making it easy for newbies to buy and sell over 300 cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Avalanche, Cosmos and many others.
Uphold Cryptocurencies
Users on Uphold also have the option to buy metals such a gold and silver and fiat currencies such as USD and GBP.
Buy and sell crypto on Uphold
Uphold also supports staking for over 30 different cryptocurrencies such as ATOM and Mina, repeat purchases and support for over 15 stablecoins.
The platform offers a clean and simple interface that is easy to navigate, making it ideal for beginners.
Staking on Uphold
Compared to Uphold, Kraken stands out as one of the oldest and most safe and reliable cryptocurrency exchanges in the world.
Kraken USPs
The company offers a comprehensive selection of crypto products designed to meet the needs of retail clients, professional traders, and institutions.
The exchange is particularly popular for its variety of user interfaces, each catering to different levels of experience in the crypto world. These interfaces include Kraken, Kraken Classic, Kraken Pro, and an NFT Marketplace.
Kraken Dashboard
The default Kraken interface is an ideal starting point for beginners. It offers a simple and intuitive platform for exploring, buying, selling, receiving, and sending cryptocurrencies, making it perfect for those new to crypto.
Kraken Classic provides a more expanded dashboard, including access to a broader range of products, account settings, and an overview of security features.
Kraken Classic
For the experienced trader, Kraken Pro presents a more advanced platform. Here, users can delve into sophisticated trading products.
The platform offers a spot trading order book that includes over 220 cryptocurrencies such as BTC, ETH, SOL, ATOM, and many others.
Kraken Pro Spot Trading
While Kraken's cryptocurrency selection is more selective, it encompasses most major digital currencies. Kraken also offers margin trading where users can long or short with up to 5X leverage across over 100 digital assets.
Adding to its advanced trading options, Kraken has introduced futures products, featuring over 90 perpetual contracts with competitive fees and leverage of up to 50X.
Kraken Futures
These futures contracts vary in maturity, including monthly, quarterly, and semi-annual options, and traders can choose between isolated margin to limit their risk or cross margin to utilize all their collateral across multiple positions.
Kraken Perpetual Trading
The exchange also includes an analytics section, providing traders with various data points to aid in making informed trading decisions.
Kraken Analytics
In terms of trading volumes Kraken often ranks in the top 20 globally for 24/7 spot trading volumes which frequently reach $1 billion.
Kraken Trading Volumes
However, in the derivatives market Kraken's presence is more modest, with trading volumes typically between $50-$100 million.
Kraken also offers staking options for over 20 cryptocurrencies, including ALGO, ADA, ATOM, ETH, MATIC, DOT, SOL, MINA, among others.
Kraken Staking
In select countries, users can also earn interest on stablecoins like USDT and USDC, as well as on fiat currencies such as USD and EUR, with interest rates ranging from 3% to 5%.
Kraken Earn
For enthusiasts of NFTs and digital collectibles, Kraken supports NFTs on Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon, featuring a collection of over 250 digital collections.
Kraken NFTs
Being based in the United States, Kraken adheres to stringent standards of transparency and accountability, setting it apart from many offshore exchanges. The company regularly provides proof of reserves to assure users that all funds are accounted for.
Kraken OTC Desk
Additionally, for high-net-worth individuals and institutional clients, Kraken offers an exclusive OTC Desk for large, private trades. This service provides quotes for orders ranging from $100,000 to $1 million and available 24/7.
These fees are on the higher end when compared to the spot fees charged by most exchanges buy lower than when buying crypto via third-party providers.
On the other hand, Kraken charges a spot maker fee of 0.16% and a spot taker fee of 0.26%. Their futures maker fee is 0.02% and futures taker fee is 0.05%.
Kraken spot fees
Trading fees on Kraken can be lowered for both spot and futures trading if monthly trade volumes exceed $50,000.
While not the cheapest, Kraken is certainly competitive in terms of trading fees in addition to the many other advantages offered by the exchange.
When it comes to depositing funds onto their respective exchanges, both Uphold and Kraken have some good features to offer their clients.
Uphold supports three fiat currencies which are USD, EUR, and GBP. Users can deposit funds via debit/credit card, bank transfer for USD via ACH/Wire, EUR deposits via SEPA and GBP deposits via Faster Payments.
The best part is that all fiat bank transfers on Uphold are free of charge. In terms of card deposits however, Uphold charges a 3.99% deposit fee with credit cards and a 2.49% deposit fee with debit cards.
Kraken offers support for seven fiat currencies, including USD, EUR, CAD, AUD, GBP, CHF, and JPY. Kraken offers a variety of deposit methods, such as Fedwire, SWIFT, ACH, SEPA, FPS, and more.
Kraken fiat deposits
Similar to Uphold, Kraken offers free ACH deposits for USD, EUR, and CAD via bank transfers (ACH). Kraken charges a 0.15 EUR fee for SEPA deposits and a 0.1% (min $60 USD) fee for wire deposits.
Moving on to withdrawals, Uphold provides fiat withdrawal methods like bank transfers (ACH/Wire), SEPA and Faster Payments (FSP) to their users.
For those that wish to withdraw funds from Uphold, they will have to pay a fee is $2.99 to withdraw cryptocurrencies (excluding blockchain fees) and a fee of $3.99 for bank withdrawals.
Kraken supports fiat withdrawals for all the 7 currencies they support. The platform offers ACH (free), SEPA Fee (0.9 EUR), SWIFT ($4), and FPS (1.95 GBP) as some of their fiat withdrawal methods.
Kraken withdrawal options
This means that users have a variety of options to choose from when it comes to withdrawing your funds irrespective if they are based in the US, Europe or even Japan.
In terms of cryptocurrency withdrawals, Kraken once again does a good job of keeping it's fees low with Bitcoin withdrawals fees of 0.00001 BTC, 0.0035 ETH for Ethereum.
For Solana the fees are 0.01 SOL and 3.55 USDT to withdraw Tether USD. These fees are quite reasonable compared to some of the other exchanges out there.
Uphold is a versatile digital money platform that enables users to trade various financial instruments, including cryptocurrencies, precious metals, and fiat currencies.
With over 10 million users and available in 184 countries, Uphold has gained popularity for its user-friendly interface, diverse range of assets, and commitment to transparency.
The platform supports more than 300 cryptocurrencies and altcoins, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, and its unique "Anything-to-Anything" trading feature allows users to convert between different asset classes.
Uphold prioritizes security, regulatory compliance and all of their assets are backed 1-1 via proof of reserves.
Kraken is the second biggest exchange in the United States and is also known for its security, reliability, and wide range of supported crypto and fiat currencies.
With over 9 million users and available in 190 countries, Kraken offers various services, such as spot trading, margin trading, futures trading, and staking, catering to both beginners and experienced traders.
The platform supports over 190 cryptocurrencies which while not as many as Uphold, is still a solid range.
In terms of trading fees, Uphold charges a $0.99 USD fee for cryptocurrency transactions under $100 and a spread of 0.9-1.8% for trades above that. Kraken, on the other hand, charges a spot maker fee of 0.16% and a spot taker fee of 0.26%.
When it comes to deposit and withdrawal methods, both Uphold and Kraken support the three big ones which are USD, EUR, and GBP.
Both exchanges offer free bank deposits and withdrawals via bank transfer while Kraken offers some additional deposit and withdrawal methods for a few other fiat currencies as well.
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.
