Kraken vs Robinhood
Kraken is cheaper: a $1,000 buy-and-sell costs $16.00 in platform fees vs $19.00 on Robinhood. Pick Kraken if you are traders in the US (outside New York and Maine), UK or EEA who want a long-running regulated exchange and will use Kraken Pro limit orders rather than the 1% instant-buy flow. Pick Robinhood if you are uS users who already invest with Robinhood and want a simple way to buy major coins and listed memecoins (DOGE, SHIB, PEPE, BONK, WIF, TRUMP) without a separate exchange account. For US users: Robinhood is available; Kraken is partly available.
Checked 2026-10-27 · both venues' fee pagesKraken is a US-based custodial crypto exchange run by Payward, Inc., founded in San Francisco in 2011 and open to the public since September 2013. Instant buys and sells in the Kraken app carry a 1% fee plus a spread, while the Kraken Pro order book charges 0.40% maker and 0.80% taker at the entry tier.
Robinhood is a US brokerage app whose crypto unit (Robinhood Crypto, LLC) began live trading in February 2018 and now sells ~90 coins, including memecoins such as DOGE, SHIB, PEPE, BONK, WIF and TRUMP. Default trades have no explicit fee: Robinhood is paid inside the spread, keeping 0.95% of notional from its market makers as of June 2026. Optional exchange routing instead charges 0.00%-0.95% fee tiers. A separate non-custodial Robinhood Wallet app charges a 0.80% swap fee.
Kraken saves $3.00 per $1,000 round trip.
Side by side
| Kraken | Robinhood | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Exchange | Exchange |
| Status | live | live |
| Chains | Ethereum, Bitcoin, Solana, Dogecoin, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, BNB Chain, Base, Robinhood Chain | |
| Platforms | web, ios, android, desktop | web, ios, android, desktop |
| Custody | Custodial | Custodial |
| KYC | required | required |
| Platform fee, round trip | 1.6% | 1.9% |
| $1,000 round trip | $16.00 | $19.00 |
| Sign-up perk | Up to $75 in the US once the new user deposits fiat from a bank and meets the offer's trading requirement within 15 days of signing up | A separate sign-up stock reward after opening an eligible account and linking a bank or debit card |
| Perps taker / maker | 0.05% / 0.02% | — |
| United States | Partly available | Available |
| United Kingdom | Available | Available |
| European Union | Available | Available |
| Launched | 2013-09 | 2018-02 |
| Reported incidents | 6 | 3 |
What your trade costs on each
Cost of a round trip (buy + sell). Platform fee only; network and pool fees are extra.
Features
| Feature | Kraken | Robinhood |
|---|---|---|
| instant buy/sell | ✓ | — |
| recurring buys | ✓ | — |
| Kraken Pro maker/taker order book | ✓ | — |
| margin trading | ✓ | — |
| futures and perpetuals | ✓ | — |
| staking | ✓ | ✓ |
| stocks and ETFs (US) | ✓ | — |
| xStocks tokenized equities (outside US) | ✓ | — |
| Kraken+ subscription | ✓ | — |
| proof of reserves | ✓ | — |
| API trading | ✓ | — |
| OTC desk | ✓ | — |
| mobile app | ✓ | — |
| desktop app | ✓ | — |
| commission-free crypto (spread) | — | ✓ |
| exchange routing fee tiers | — | ✓ |
| maker/taker limit orders | — | ✓ |
| robinhood legend desktop | — | ✓ |
"—" means the feature was not in the sources we checked, not proof it's missing.
Kraken: watch out for
- Not available to residents of New York or Maine.
- Instant buys cost 1% (1.5% custom orders) plus a spread that Kraken does not publish as a fixed rate.
- ACH Plaid purchases are held for seven days, and card or wallet purchases can be held for 72 hours, before withdrawal.
Robinhood: watch out for
- The default route's spread includes 0.95% per side that goes to Robinhood (as of June 2026), about 1.9% round trip.
- Robinhood Crypto received integration fees for listing some assets, such as FLOKI, ONDO, ENA, SUI and ZORA.
- The Robinhood Wallet swap fee (0.80% same-chain) is high compared with many DEX aggregators.
FAQ
Is Kraken better than Robinhood?
Kraken is cheaper: a $1,000 buy-and-sell costs $16.00 in platform fees vs $19.00 on Robinhood. Pick Kraken if you are traders in the US (outside New York and Maine), UK or EEA who want a long-running regulated exchange and will use Kraken Pro limit orders rather than the 1% instant-buy flow. Pick Robinhood if you are uS users who already invest with Robinhood and want a simple way to buy major coins and listed memecoins (DOGE, SHIB, PEPE, BONK, WIF, TRUMP) without a separate exchange account. For US users: Robinhood is available; Kraken is partly available.
Which is cheaper, Kraken or Robinhood?
Kraken. On a $1,000 round trip: Kraken $16.00 vs Robinhood $19.00, platform fees only.
Can I use Kraken or Robinhood in the US?
Kraken: partly available. Robinhood: available. Based on each venue's own terms.
Sources
Last checked . Fees and terms change often; the venue's own page wins if it disagrees with ours.
- Kraken - Fee schedule (instant buy, Kraken Pro tiers, stablecoin, futures, perps) — checked 2026-10-27
- Kraken+ - zero trading fees subscription — checked 2026-10-27
- Kraken Support - Where is Kraken licensed or regulated? (geographic restrictions) — checked 2026-10-27
- Kraken Support - Changes that affected our Maine clients — checked 2026-10-27
- Kraken Support - Why is there a withdrawal hold on my account? — checked 2026-10-27
- Kraken Support - Cryptocurrency withdrawal fees and minimums — checked 2026-10-27
- Robinhood - Crypto order routing (0.95% market-maker payment, spread example) — checked 2026-10-27
- Robinhood - Crypto fee tiers (0.00%-0.95%) — checked 2026-10-27
- Robinhood - Crypto fee tiers promo terms (range 0.85%-0.03% in Nov 2025) — checked 2026-10-16
- Robinhood - Crypto availability (supported coins, NY/TX restrictions, integration fees) — checked 2026-10-27
- Robinhood Wallet - Send, receive, and swap crypto (swap fees) — checked 2026-10-16
- Robinhood Wallet FAQ — checked 2026-10-16