There are many cryptocurrency exchanges scattered around the blockchain multi-verse, but only a few have made it on the best exchanges list. And guess what? Kraken rules them all.

Before I could delve into the features that make it worthy of the number one slot, it calls for mentioning the reason for its budding.

Why was Kraken created in the first place?

The story of its creation is the story of filling a space of a reliable, secure, and liquid exchange. The founder, Jesse Powell, first worked at Mt. Gox – a then cryptocurrency exchange that experienced numerous hacking attacks and succumbed to one of them; thus, compromising millions of dollars of Bitcoins and altcoins. After sensing the discrepancy in the makeup of the cryptocurrency exchanges and their security protocols, Jesse Powell started creating his own “professional” exchange that eliminated all the security threats and provided the users an exchange that they could rely on.

Since its creation, Kraken has emerged as the top Bitcoin exchange in terms of volume and liquidity.

But this is not the only thing that brought it into the limelight.

So, what really makes Kraken the best exchange? It’s most viable features are what makes it worthwhile.

1. Its liquidity is commendable

Apart from dealing in the popular cryptocurrencies trading, Kraken also offers buying almost all the top cryptos for Canadian dollars, US dollars, British pounds, and Japanese. This makes it versatile on its own. Even slow-moving coins like Ripple can benefit from the myriads of pairing offered on the exchange.

Besides this, since it has risen to fame over the past years, people are enjoying trading on the platform and because of this increased interaction, even the most less-traded coins are, well, traded.

I’d also like to mention here that although the exchange offers only the top cryptocurrencies to be traded, it still offers enough trading options that you could feast upon, thanks to the multitude of trade-pairs available on it.

2. Its customer support knows how to make customers happy

For a popular coin exchange, it sometimes becomes difficult to deal with many troves of complaints. But this is where Kraken takes the edge. It provides top-notch customer support and gets to everyone in mere days.

3. Formidable security

Kraken was created in the name of security as I mentioned above. It takes care of its customer’s personal data by definite security filters such as the two-factor authentication system, and the Global Settings Lock. With the help of former, you can create a double-layered security protocol, while the latter allows you to block out certain IP addresses that you don’t normally use or would not want to associate with your account.

If you’re thinking about trading on Kraken, here’s a little advice pertaining to security of your account: The two-step verification system should be heeded as it saves your account from hacking. Just a few years back (2016), few of the accounts were, in fact, hacked – those accounts that had not enabled the verification system.

4. It has passed the Cryptographic Proof of Reserves Audit

It was on March 24, 2014, that Kraken passed the first ever Cryptographic Proof of Reserves Audit.

What is it? you ask

Carried out by Stefan Thomas, this audit makes sure that an exchange has abundant reserves of Bitcoin to cover all the coins held by the customers or users of the exchange.

For any exchange, passing this “test” should serve as a green card of reliability, and in those terms, Kraken is doing very well indeed.

5. Ease of use

Kraken offers a UI that is easy to use and has all the requisite options for an exchange. It is one of the features that has attracted both the newbies and the experts alike. Those features come in the form of templates that could be used according to one’s difficulty.

6. Margin Trading

There’s a definite edge to the trading taking place at Kraken. It has introduced the “leveraged trading” phenomenon where you can borrow money to buy bitcoin more than your current capacity. For example, if you wish to buy $15,000 worth of bitcoin, but you only have $5,000, you can always borrow $1,000. This could, in the long run, translate into profit like if the bitcoin price rose and your investment also rose to, let’s say, $25,000, you’ll earn $10,000!

7. Short selling of the bitcoin

In case the value of the bitcoin drops by a larger margin, you’d have the choice to “short” the currency. For example, if you short sell $5,000 bitcoin because the value has dropped to $3,000 and then you buy it back at that value, you actually save yourself $2,000. However, if you short the same amount when there has been an appreciation in the value of the coin to $7,000, you’d lose $2,000. Therefore, it’s always advisable to use this feature when the price of the bitcoin drops down.

8. The transaction fee

The transaction fee charged by Kraken is by far lower than that of the other exchanges. It charges a “maker fee of 0.16% and a taker fee of 0.26%”, which reduces to 0.14% and 0.24% if your trading volume is greater than 50,000.

For a detailed fee structure, you can visit this link.

So, this is Kraken for you. A secure, reliable, and easy-to-use cryptocurrency trading platform that also lets you buy cryptos for fiat. If you wish to open your account, you’d have to give your personal information depending on the tier of verification you are willing to give.