What Is Kraken? Payward's Crypto Exchange, Products, Fees and Availability

Who runs Kraken: Payward and its regulated entities

Kraken is a brand, and Payward, Inc. is the parent company behind it. Customers contract with a regional Payward entity, so the company you deal with depends on where you live.

The footer of kraken.com carries "© 2011–2026 Payward, Inc.," and Kraken says the exchange launched more than 14 years ago. Jesse Powell is publicly identified as a co-founder. In October 2024 Kraken appointed board member Arjun Sethi as co-CEO alongside Dave Ripley (Business Wire).

Payward has grown partly through acquisitions. It completed the purchase of futures broker NinjaTrader on May 1, 2025 (Business Wire), and in May 2026 it closed its acquisition of Bitnomial, which holds CFTC registrations as a futures commission merchant, designated contract market and derivatives clearing organization (The Block). Payward says those licenses are meant to support US spot margin, perpetuals and options for eligible clients.

Is Kraken a public company? Not as of October 2026. Payward announced a confidential draft registration statement with the SEC in November 2025. Reporting from September 2026 says the company has not set a listing date and is not expected to list before the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest (Crowdfund Insider). That timing is unconfirmed by Payward.

Main legal entities and registrations (as of October 2026)

Kraken's legal disclosures page lists these entities:

The US entities list a correspondence address at 106 E. Lincolnway, 4th Floor, Cheyenne, WY 82001. A registration is not the same as a full banking or securities license, and none of these registrations means customer crypto is insured.

What Kraken offers

Kraken's product set is broader than spot trading, but each product has its own eligibility rules.

• Kraken app (instant buy/sell). The simplest way to buy crypto at a quoted price. Convenience costs more: see the fee section.
• Kraken Pro. An order-book interface with maker/taker pricing, advanced order types and API access for automated trading.
• Margin and perpetual futures. Leveraged products that allow short positions where permitted. Retail derivatives are unavailable in the UK, and margin and derivatives are unavailable in Canada.
• Rewards and staking. Opt-in rewards on eligible assets, restricted to select US states and unavailable in Canada and Australia. OBOL covers this product separately in its Kraken staking review; for background on how rewards are generated, see how staking works.
• xStocks. Tokenized equities, unavailable in the US, UK, Canada and Australia.
• Kraken Wallet. A separate self-custody mobile wallet. Kraken describes it as multi-chain, listing networks such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism and Polygon.
• NinjaTrader. A futures trading platform that Payward owns.
• Institutional services. Prime brokerage, OTC desk and custody for larger clients.

Where Kraken is available

Kraken accepts clients from most countries, but residence decides both access and product menu (Kraken support, checked October 2026).

Countries not served: Afghanistan, Belarus, the Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Libya, North Korea, Russia, Sudan, South Sudan and Syria.

United States: - New York and Maine residents cannot use Kraken. - Crypto transfers are unavailable in Indiana. - Fiat transfers are unavailable in Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts and Utah. - Texas and New Hampshire residents can only use USD for fiat and cannot trade EUR pairs.

Elsewhere: - EEA: Served through Irish entities passported across the bloc. Many stablecoins and some reward programs are restricted. - UK: New retail accounts face a mandatory 24-hour cooling-off period. Derivatives, opt-in rewards and xStocks are unavailable. - Canada: Kraken is a registered restricted dealer and FINTRAC-registered money services business. Many assets are restricted. - Australia, Bermuda and Argentina: Registered with AUSTRAC, licensed by the Bermuda Monetary Authority (Class F) and registered with Argentina's CNV, respectively. - Singapore: Kraken states it is not licensed there.

Opening an account requires identity verification, and Kraken says the assets you can buy or deposit depend on your verified residency.

What Kraken charges

Kraken's cost depends mainly on the interface you use. Kraken Pro uses maker/taker fees, while the app charges a flat trading fee plus a spread built into the quoted price (fee schedule, as of October 2026).

Kraken Pro fees fall as 30-day volume rises. Kraken+ subscribers pay no trading fee on up to $10,000 a month in major currencies, but the spread still applies.

Costs that are easy to miss: - Spread. The app's quoted price includes a spread that Kraken says varies with volatility, asset and order size. It is not disclosed as a fixed percentage. - Card purchases. Debit or credit card funding can carry extra fees. - Withdrawal fees. Crypto withdrawal fees can be fixed or dynamic and differ by asset and network. Kraken shows the final fee at confirmation.

Illustrative example (assumptions, not a quote): Buying $1,000 of BTC as a market order on Kraken Pro at the entry tier costs about $8 in taker fees. The same purchase through the app's instant buy costs a $10 fee plus whatever spread is built into the price at that moment.

Moving crypto in and out of Kraken

To send crypto from Kraken to another wallet, you withdraw it to an external address. Depositing from another exchange, such as Binance, works the other way: you send to a deposit address that Kraken generates for you.

1. Choose the asset and the network carefully. The network on the sending side must match the receiving side. Sending on an unsupported network can result in a permanent loss.
2. For a deposit, copy the address (and any memo or tag) that Kraken generates for that asset and network. Paste it into the withdrawal form at the sending exchange.
3. For a withdrawal, add the destination address in Kraken and review the network fee shown at confirmation.
4. Send a small test amount first when using a new address or route.
5. Enable two-factor authentication for funding actions so withdrawals require a second confirmation.

Check your state's limits first: Indiana residents currently cannot make crypto transfers at all. Interfaces change, so follow the current steps in Kraken's support center rather than screenshots from third-party guides.

Is Kraken safe?

Kraken is a custodial exchange, so its safety depends on how well the company protects assets it controls, and on how well you secure your login. Funds you hold on the exchange are not under your own keys. The trade-offs are explained in OBOL's guide to custodial vs. non-custodial wallets.

Proof of reserves

Kraken publishes proof-of-reserves reviews. In these, an independent accountant (not named on the page) checks that Kraken's holdings of selected assets match or exceed client balances in a Merkle tree, and customers can check their own balance's inclusion. As of October 2026, the latest snapshot listed is June 30, 2026, covering assets including BTC, ETH, SOL, USDC, USDT and XRP.

A reserve review is not a full financial audit. It does not show Payward's total liabilities or solvency.

Account protections

Kraken supports passkeys (which it recommends over other methods) and authenticator-app codes. You can require two-factor authentication separately for sign-in, trading and funding. A Global Settings Lock, used with a master key, makes account settings harder to change (Kraken support).

Regulatory record

These are the main regulatory actions on record:

• February 9, 2023: Two Payward entities agreed to pay $30 million to settle SEC charges over their US staking program, without admitting or denying the allegations (SEC).
• November 20, 2023: The SEC sued Payward, alleging Kraken operated as an unregistered exchange.
• March 27, 2025: That case was dismissed with prejudice. The SEC said the decision was a policy choice, not an assessment of the merits (SEC).
• Australia, 2024: The Federal Court found that Bit Trade Pty Ltd offered a margin-extension product to more than 1,100 customers without a required target market determination. In December 2024, ASIC announced an A$8 million penalty (ASIC).

OBOL's separate Kraken exchange review gives the editorial assessment; this page sticks to how the service works.

Getting help and avoiding impersonators

Kraken's official help center is support.kraken.com, which hosts articles and the ticket and chat entry points. Kraken staff do not need your password, 2FA codes or seed phrases. Treat unsolicited messages, phone calls and "support" accounts in your direct messages as phishing. If you believe an account has been compromised, the first steps in OBOL's compromised-wallet guide also apply to exchange logins.

Official channels

Use these to confirm you are on a genuine Kraken property:

• Website: kraken.com
• Help center: support.kraken.com
• X: x.com/krakenfx
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/krakenfx/
• YouTube: youtube.com/c/KrakenBitcoinExchange
• Facebook: facebook.com/KrakenFX/
• Instagram: instagram.com/krakenfx/
• Reddit community: reddit.com/r/Kraken/