Rating report
Kraken
Grade A-, 4.3 out of 5
Kraken holds a Wyoming SPDI charter, CFTC and SEC registrations and two EU MiCA authorisations, and has published Merkle-tree proof of reserves verified by Armanino LLP since February 2022; it discloses no insurance-fund figure.
By Safety Desk. Facts checked against official sources on .
Findings, check by check
Every KripZen grade comes from the same five weighted checks. Here is how Kraken scores on each.
Proof of reserves 30%
Merkle-tree proof of reserves verified by third-party accountant Armanino LLP since February 2022, most recently finalised 30 June 2025 across BTC, ETH, SOL, USDC, USDT, XRP and ADA.
What “Proof of reserves” meansDisclosed
Custody 25%
Cold/hot storage split is not disclosed; we could not confirm it from a primary source.
What “Custody” meansPartial or unaudited
Regulation 20%
Wyoming Special Purpose Depository Institution charter, CFTC DCM/DCO/FCM and SEC broker-dealer/RIA registrations, and two EU MiCA CASP authorisations; settled with the CFTC for $1.25m in September 2021 and with the SEC for $30m in February 2023 over its U.S. staking-as-a-service programme, relaunching on-chain U.S. staking in January 2025.
What “Regulation” meansDisclosed
Insurance 15%
No insurance-fund figure is publicly disclosed. Our research found no SAFU-equivalent named fund, which is a disclosure gap rather than confirmation that none exists.
Partial or unaudited
Incident history 10%
No confirmed major security incident found in our research; Kraken has operated since 2011 with no reported breach costing customers funds.
Disclosed
The weights are the same for every exchange. Read the full methodology
Licences and registrations
The 10 entries we could confirm for Kraken on a regulator’s register or the exchange’s own legal pages. A licence in one country does not mean the service is open to you.
| Regulator | Licence or registration | Register number |
|---|---|---|
| Central Bank of IrelandIreland | MiCA CASP Payward Europe Solutions Limited | C468360 |
| Central Bank of IrelandIreland | MiCA CASP (trading platform) Payward Global Solutions Limited | C559106 |
| Central Bank of IrelandIreland | E-Money Institution Payward Ireland Limited | C453020 |
| CySECCyprus | MiFID investment firm Payward Europe Digital Solutions (CY) Limited | 342/17 |
| FCAUnited Kingdom | cryptoasset registration Payward Limited | FRN 928768 |
| FCAUnited Kingdom | E-money institution Payward Services Limited | FRN 1010381 |
| FinCENUnited States | MSB Payward Interactive, Inc. | 31000270997766 |
| FINTRACCanada | MSB Payward Canada, Inc. | M19343731 |
| AUSTRACAustralia | Digital Currency Exchange Bit Trade Pty Ltd | ACN 163 237 634 |
| Bermuda Monetary AuthorityBermuda | Class F Digital Asset Business Payward Digital Solutions Ltd | 202403268 |
Fees, products and reach
- Spot fees (base tier)
- 0.4% maker, 0.8% takerTier 1, spot 30-day volume $0+ (<$5M)
- Proof of reserves
- PublishedLatest report seen: 2026-06-30
- Products
- Spot, Futures, Staking, Card purchases
- Founded
- 2011
- Not offered under its own terms in
- Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Congo - Kinshasa, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Libya, North Korea, Russia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria
Base-tier fees from the exchange’s own fee page. Your real cost depends on order type, volume tier and spread; try your numbers in the Exchange Fee Calculator
Our Kraken review
Kraken is the highest grade we publish, at A-, and the only exchange in this corpus whose reserve reports carry an outside accountant's name. It is not a clean sweep: two of the five factors are gaps in what Kraken tells you, rather than findings against it.
What checks out
Merkle-tree proof of reserves has been verified by third-party accountant Armanino LLP since February 2022 — most recently finalised on 30 June 2025 across BTC, ETH, SOL, USDC, USDT, XRP and ADA. An attestation is still not a full financial audit, but an independent firm putting its name to the numbers is the difference between "we say we hold it" and "somebody else looked". The licence book is unusually deep for crypto: a Wyoming Special Purpose Depository Institution charter, CFTC DCM, DCO and FCM registrations, SEC broker-dealer and RIA registrations, and two EU MiCA CASP authorisations. Kraken has operated since 2011 with no reported breach that cost customers funds.
Where the evidence stops
The cold/hot storage split is not disclosed, and we could not confirm it from a primary source. Neither is any insurance fund: our research found no SAFU-equivalent named cover, which is a disclosure gap rather than proof that none exists. The regulatory record also carries two settlements — $1.25m with the CFTC in September 2021, and $30m with the SEC in February 2023 over the U.S. staking-as-a-service programme, with on-chain U.S. staking relaunched in January 2025.
How to read the grade
An A- is the best available on this rubric today, not a clean bill of health. It means the two hardest things to fake — independently attested reserves and a licence trail on public registers — are both present, and that what happens to your funds if the exchange is attacked is still something Kraken has not put in writing.
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from one of these official pages, checked on October 20, 2026.
Where to go next
Other exchanges we've graded
How to read these grades: each is derived from published, checkable disclosures — proof-of-reserves attestations, public regulatory registers, disclosed insurance funds and the documented incident record — using the weighted rubric below. Where an exchange does not disclose something, we mark it unverified rather than assume it. These are not audits and not investment advice; they reflect what was published as of our last review. Cryptocurrency investments carry risk, including loss of principal. Nothing on KripZen is financial advice — always do your own research before buying, trading or moving funds.