Kraken VS Bittrex: Ultimate Crypto Exchange Comparison Guide

Comparison
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General Information

KrakenBittrex
Year of foundation20112014
CountryUSAUSA
LanguagesEnglish, Japanese, Chinese, German, Spanish, Russian, Greek, Ukrainian, Turkish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and two types of KoreanEnglish, Russian, Chinese
Mobile appiOSiOS, Android

Registration and Verification

Kraken

Kraken uses verification levels to determine how you can fund your account. You can deposit and withdraw only digital currency at Level 1. However, you can exchange digital currency as well as fiduciary currencies at this level. To reach Level 1, you must submit your full name, date of birth, country, and phone number. In Level 2 or Level 3, bank deposits and withdrawals (via bank transfer) are available.

Bittrex

You can easily create a free account on Bittrex. You can choose a personal or corporate account. Corporate accounts are more closely monitored and take longer to open. KYC verification is mandatory for full access to Bittrex platform features. Without KYC, withdrawal options will be limited. When creating an account, you need to go through the standard email verification process, read the terms of service, fill out basic profile details and pass the KYC check.

User Interface

Kraken

Kraken has a vast list of support FAQs and provides a training guide to help the beginner get started. Users have criticized Kraken for having an unintuitive user interface, being slow in processing transactions, and arbitrarily closing accounts without explanation.

Bittrex

The interface is typical, integrating a chart from TradingView and a set of familiar panels (price markers, deal formation panel, order book, etc.). Questions may arise only at the stage of parsing trading orders and the formation of the first deals. The problem is in the too superficial description of trade orders contained in the reference material. And this is taking into account that some orders have several special settings unique to this exchange.

Trading Volumes and Traded Pairs

Kraken

Kraken is not a dedicated crypto-currency exchange, as it also facilitates the fiat exchange of currencies such as Euro, Yen, Dollar, Pound, etc. Kraken accommodates over 17 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, Cardano, DASH, Dogecoin, EOS, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, Monero, Ripple, Tether, Zcash, and many more.

Bittrex

Bittrex has no functionality for margin trading. This means that traders have the opportunity to earn only on growth, i.e., to enter only Long positions. Bittrex exchange has 442 trading pairs and many cryptocurrencies. You can quickly check if your token or coin is supported on the market data aggregator CoinMarketCap.

Commission

Kraken

At Kraken, the manufacturer’s rates peak at 0.16% and drop to 0.00% for most trading partners. Rates range from 0.10% to 0.26% for takers.

Bittrex

Commissions at Bittrex Crypto Exchange are universal and are 0.25% for each order type. Deposits and withdrawals are not subject to fees.

Security

Kraken

Kraken stores most offline digital assets in encrypted wallets, while the remaining currencies are used to maintain liquidity in the exchange. Kraken also maintains full reserves that ensure that no banking can be done in the market. Kraken does not mention FDIC insurance on its website, a security precaution taken by other popular exchanges.

Bittrex

Security is not an empty word for this exchange. One of the most critical security elements for any crypto trader is 2FA. This feature increases the safety of the account.

Pros and Cons

Kraken

Pros
  • number of trading pairs
  • margin trading
  • age of occurrence
  • security
  • flexible verification system
Cons
  • compulsory and complex verification

Bittrex

Pros
  • High level of security. The exchange has never been hacked.
  • Verification is carried out with a minimum amount of data about the client.
  • The account verification process is faster than on many other exchanges.
  • Average commissions on the market. Bittrex charges 0.25% for any transactions.
  • Support for more than 250 cryptocurrencies, including rare ones.
  • No deposit limits.
  • Up to 90% of customer funds are stored in cold wallets.
  • The exchange is available for work in most countries.
Cons
  • There is no margin trading and no possibility to get loans to open positions.
  • Liquidity at the exchange sometimes does not allow to quickly process transactions with large volumes.
  • Lack of incentive programs for new users.
  • No referral program.
  • Slow response of the support service to requests from users.
  • Problems with the verification.
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