Kraken vs Gemini

This article is our in-depth Kraken vs Gemini comparison.

KraKrakenKrakenKrssssssksks

‍Kraken and Gemini are both popular cryptocurrency exchanges, one of the most secured and offering features for beginners and experienced traders.

The Weirdo.Rocks team has years of experiences in Crypto area and their applications. We are using multiple exchanges and comparing them to help you make the best choice. Now it’s time for Kraken and Gemini and let’s see which one is more suitable for you in terms of trading options, fees and limits, safety, differences, and overall user experience.

Our winner is Gemini for its overall trading experience, even though it's supporting less currencies compared to Kraken. There is more to say, so let's dive into it!

‍

Table: Comparison between Kraken and Gemini

‍

Overview: Kraken vs Gemini

Kraken

Kraken is a USA-based cryptocurrency exchange founded by Jesse Powell, already back in 2011, and launched in 2013. It's one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges. It's based in San Francisco, California.

Kraken is an exchange that provides trading between cryptocurrency fiat currencies, and also margin, and futures trading. Kraken is available to residents of the US and 176 countries and is restricted to Cuba, Iran, Japan, and North Korea. You can buy over 65 cryptocurrencies.

You can use a Euro credit or debit card to top-up a Kraken purchase; you need to use a bank transfer for USD transactions.

Kraken has unique fee structures for each trading option, helping you maximize your savings and return on investment.

Besides traditional trading, including best market price and fixed price orders, you can also use some of the more advanced features conditional closes, stop limits, expirations, and leverage options.

Kraken has high-security standards and keeps your deposits are secured in various cold storages.

The user interface is a bit outdated; robust but less user-friendly.

‍

Gemini

Gemini was founded in 2014, also in New York, where they have their headquarters, by the known twins Winklevoss, Cameron, and Tyler. So that's where the name 'Gemini' comes from too.

You can buy and sell over 50 different cryptocurrencies on its straightforward and easy-to-use platform. They offer a simple dashboard and are advanced enough for experienced traders. It allows users to buy, sell, and store digital assets or trade them with fiat. For beginners, they have rich educational material to get you started.

You can top up your account with a bank transfer (ACH), wire transfer, or cryptocurrency deposits, for which different fees apply.

They are launching Gemini Credit Card (Mastercard), so you can already join their waitlist. You can also invest in their stablecoin Gemini dollar (GUSD), backed 1:1 by the US dollar.

As Kraken, also Gemini is a highly secured exchange, and they are known as one of the safest digital currency exchanges. They are storing most of the assets in various distributed cold storages; they require two-factor authentication and adhere to the regulations by the NYSDFS.

Main features and differences: Gemini vs Kraken

Let's briefly check the most significant features and key differences between Kraken and Gemini.

Crypto trading

Both Kraken and Gemini are not offering the largest number of cryptocurrencies to trade. However, you can still select from a solid number of currencies, and they are regularly adding new ones.

Kraken offers low trading fees that can be reduced for large-volume traders and can drop to 0 % maker fees for the highest trading volume.

With Kraken, you can buy crypto instantly with one of the available fiat currencies: AUD, CAD, CHF, EUR, GBP, JPY, and USD. Meaning, you don't need to convert your local currency to USD or BTC when buying cryptocurrency.

Gemini is compared to Kraken, more suitable for beginners, but also offers the ActiveTrader option, which provides the experienced traders with advanced charts, and all order types. After enabling ActiveTrader, you switch to buying and selling directly on the market, which lowers your fees too.

With both, you can invest in stable coins: Gemini supports stable currencies like Gemini dollar (GUSD) and Dai, Kraken USD, and EUR; however, this is supported for eligible countries only.

Differences: Kraken vs Gemini

Interest Earnings

One of the unique features of Gemini that Kraken doesn't have is the possibility to earn interest without needing to stake your holdings on the Gemini Earn account. Depending on the crypto you hold, you can earn up to 8.05% APY. You can move your cryptocurrency back to your trading account (plus interest) at any time, with no minimums and no transfer fees.

With Kraken, you can get from 4% to 23% APY, depending on the currency you decide to stake. You can even earn staking EUR or USD rewards, but this is available for certain countries only.

Gemini Pay

With Gemini Pay (available for the US market only), you can make purchases in real life to 30,000 retail locations across the United States with your account balance. You can pay with Bitcoin, Gemini dollar, Litecoin, Ether, Zash, or Bitcoin Cash. You can also jump on their waiting list for Gemini Credit Card for early access.

Gemini Wallet

The other difference is that you can deposit your assets in a safe and secure hot wallet with Gemini. Your purchases are protected with industry-leading security and protection and insurance against theft.

Margin and Futures trading

The feature in favor of Kraken is the possibility of margin, futures trading, and over-the-counter trading.

Beginner friendliness: Kraken vs Gemini

Both Kraken and Gemini have mobile apps for iOS and Android, and it's easy to set up an account for the first time.

Gemini is a more user-friendly platform and more straightforward for beginners to dive in with more confidence. It has an easy-to-digest interface that guides the user better through the trading experience. They also have the supporting documentation that is helpful if you just started using crypto apps.

Kraken was designed for more advanced users; you might have some difficulties initially before you get a good grasp of the app. However, we find it a bit more clustered, outdated, and not so intuitive, even for experienced users.

But to draw the line, you will be able to quickly get into both, as they have a very robust interface, and you will find your way after a short time.

Fees: Gemini vs Kraken

Both Gemini and Kraken offer competitive fees with a complex structure. Let's have a closer look at some of the most important ones.

Deposit fees and Withdrawal fees

The deposit of Fiat currencies like Euro, US Dollar (USD), Canadian Dollar (CAD), Australian Dollar (AUD), Pound Sterling (GBP), Swiss Franc (CHF), and Japanese Yen (JPY) is mostly free of charge with Kraken.

Fiat withdrawal costs you from 0 to up to $35, depending on your bank and currency you want to withdraw. You can see the complete list of cryptocurrency withdrawal fees and minimums here.

Bank transfer and wire deposits are free with Gemini, but you may get a charge from your bank. If you want to deposit your fiat money with a card or debit card, a 3.49% fee will apply. Unfortunately, credit and debit card deposits are not available on the US market. Gemini also gives its users ten free cryptocurrency withdrawals per month. After that, a flat fee applies depending on the coin you want to withdraw. You can see the exact fees for each coin here.

Trading fees

Kraken and Gemini have a 30-days trading volume fee structure with different levels. Kraken has 8 levels, with a 30-day volume between 0-100.000 USD, a maker fee of 0.02%, and a taker fee of 0.05%. In Level 8, with trading more than 100.000.000 USD in the last 30 days, your maker fee is 0.0%, and your taker fee is 0.01%.

Gemini introduces separate fee structures when trading via ActiveTrader or when placing orders via their web or mobile application. They have 10 levels when trading via ActiveTrader—starting at 0 USD with 0.40% taker and 0.20% maker fee. For trading, more than 500,000,000 USD in the past 30 days taker fee drops to 0.03% and the maker to 0.0%.

Safety: Kraken vs Gemini

Both Kraken and Gemini are highly regulated and considered one of the most secure crypto exchanges on the market. In addition, they both keep the majority of the funds stored in offline storage.

Fiat deposits on Gemini are insured up to $250,000 by the FDIC. Kraken has its security Lab in place, testing its products and common third-party products.

They both have 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication).

User Reviews and Customer Service: Kraken vs Gemini

We checked their Trustpilot scores and reviews, and we were pretty disappointed by the results. Both have very low scores - Kraken 2.1, which falls into the category of 'Poor' (about 1500 reviews), and Gemini even lower - 1.2, which fells into the category of 'Bad' (about 750 reviews).

With Gemini, we noticed that they received many 1-star reviews from the Turkish market in the last couple of days, which were complaining that they never received their referral funds. Now, this could be a one-time issue that escalated severely in many negative reviews for Gemini.

We think it's hard to rely on the reviews only, so you can always check it for yourself. You can test with the smaller amount and see if these are your platforms.

Kraken and Gemini both provide comprehensive guides and FAQs for their customers. In addition, they both offer 24/7 Support through website ticketing system, email, and Kraken also via Phone anLive-Chat, but customers of both point out that it takes a while for tickets to get resolved.

Here are the contact details:

Kraken phone support:

US +1 888 871 2573

UK +44 808 501 5031

EU +353 1 223 8162

Gemini email support:

support@gemini.com

fraud@gemini.com - for forwarding any suspicious emails you receive

Faqs

I'm new to crypto; which one is better for me - Kraken or Gemini?

Gemini is easier to use and has a more user-friendly interface than Kraken. The whole design of the app is better structured for newcomers.

Which one has better fees - Gemini or Kraken?

Both Kraken and Gemini have very reasonable fees. However, Kraken provides lower and more transparent fees, especially important for frequent traders.

Conclusion: Which one wins the race?

The ultimate questions which one is better, with the ultimate answer: It depends :)

If you are interested in holding cryptos for longer and are not trading daily. Gemini would be a better choice, as you can earn interest in your holdings. On the other hand, Kraken has better fees and access to margin, futures, and OTC trading, which is better for frequent traders. Kraken also has a longer list of available altcoins.

Gemini also offers features like Gemini Pay that enable you to pay for your daily purchases.

They both offer high security; therefore, you are safe to decide purely on the provided features and fee structure.

I hope our comparison helped with the decision. If you are not decided yet, you can also check our other review Kraken vs Bybit, to further explore your options.

If you are interested in some exchange that we haven't reviewed yet, drop a comment below, and we'll dig in for you!

‍

Disclaimer

This website includes information about cryptocurrencies and other financial instruments. All these areas are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money. We are NOT giving financial or investment advice; this page is for educational and informational purposes only. Please be careful and make sure that you understand how these instruments work. Also, think about whether you can afford to take the risk of losing your money.

Weirdo.Rocks encourage you to do your own research before making any investment decision.