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Binance vs Kraken
Scale against longevity. Kraken has been running since 2011 and has never lost customer funds; Binance is several times larger and settled US criminal charges in 2023.
Both links below are affiliate links — what that means. It does not change what is written here; every entry carries a drawback for the same reason.
Short answer
Choose Binance if…You need depth on pairs beyond the majors, or products Kraken does not offer in your region.
Visit Binance →Choose Kraken if…You are in the US, or counterparty history is the thing you weigh most. Check the fee schedule first — Kraken rebuilt its tiers in July 2026.
Visit Kraken →Side by side
| Binance | Kraken | |
|---|---|---|
| Launched | 2017 | 2011 |
| Based / registered | No single headquarters; regional entities, with a licensed presence in Dubai and France | United States |
| Who holds the assets | Custodial — Binance holds the keys | Custodial |
| Identity verification | Required for withdrawals and most features | Required |
| Available to US residents | Not available. US residents are redirected to Binance.US, a separate company that does not operate in every state | Yes, with some products limited by state |
| Products |
|
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What each one is actually good at
BinanceThe deepest order books in the industry — on major pairs the slippage on a large order is smaller here than anywhere else, which for size matters more than the headline fee.
Worth knowing. Pleaded guilty to US anti-money-laundering charges in November 2023 and paid a multi-billion-dollar settlement, with a compliance monitor imposed. The scale is a double-edged thing: enormous liquidity, and a company regulators watch closely.
KrakenOne of the oldest exchanges still running, with a long record of publishing proof-of-reserves attestations and a security posture it has held through cycles that removed most of its contemporaries.
Worth knowing. Rebuilt its fee tiers in July 2026 so that spot and futures tiers are no longer calculated separately — if you last checked before that, your assumed rate is wrong. Check the schedule.
What about the fees?
We do not print a fee table, and the reason is not laziness. Fee schedules change without notice — Kraken rebuilt its tier system in July 2026 — and a stale number on a page that earns from its links is worse than no number at all. So here are both live schedules, from the source:
Once you have both numbers, the trading fee calculator turns them into what a year of your actual trading would cost — which is the number that decides this, not the headline rate.
Before you commit
Availability changes. Regulators bar platforms, platforms withdraw from markets, and this page was last checked on 2026-08-05 — confirm on the platform’s own terms that it serves your country before you sign up.
And whichever you pick: an exchange balance is a trading float, not storage. Anything you are not actively trading belongs in a wallet you hold the keys to.