Bitvavo scores 4 points above Kraken, led by withdrawal track record and licence coverage. Kraken ranks #11 and Bitvavo #10 of 17 published exchanges. Every term of the gap is on the ledger below; the inputs are on the audit receipt.
Kraken59
vs
Bitvavo63
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99 · ranks #11 and #10 of 17
Criteria roundingThe criteria block is rounded to whole points before it is spread+0.2
Reproduced gap+3.9
Published gapAfter score rounding and bounds — see the note below6359+4.0
Weight is in points of the 86-point weighted total. Points are score points of the gap between the two.
BitvavoScore 63AFM-licensed Dutch MiCA CASP (licence 41000010) serving the SEPA zone only, with a fully published 10-tier 0.15%/0.25% fee schedule, free SEPA in/out, a stichting-based bankruptcy-remote asset structure written into its terms, a third-party proof-of-reserves attestation its help centre describes as quarterly, and a self-disclosed, customer-guaranteed handling of its Genesis/DCG lending exposure (EUR 280M per contemporaneous reporting).Strength: Withdrawal incident record — 9/10Watch-out: The guaranteed-price buy flow — the interface the venue itself promotes for beginners as protection from slippage — carries a market-maker mark-up over mid-price that Bitvavo nowhere quantifies, and the counterparty on those trades is its own affiliate Inveniam B.V.; the buyer who never opens the order book will pay a spread with no published number on every trade, despite a pricing-policy sentence claiming 'No hidden costs or spreads beyond those published'.KrakenScore 592011-founded exchange with cross-metric fee tiers (volume OR holdings), a MiCA CASP custody policy and a self-disclosed 2024 exploit record — but its proof of reserves names no attestor and no cadence beyond 'a regular cadence', and its terms admit 'a court may disagree with our treatment of your Digital Assets'.Strength: Withdrawal incident record — 8/10Watch-out: The default Instant Buy surface charges 1% PLUS a spread Kraken discloses to exist but never numerically bounds — a recurring buyer who never finds Kraken Pro pays an unprintable premium on every order; and the support page warns withdrawal fees 'may differ from those displayed here'.
Quick facts
At a glance
1 of 3 rows read the same for both.
FactKrakenBitvavo
Pro taker feeSnapshotKraken fee schedule, read 29 September 2026 at https://www.kraken.com/features/fee-schedule (English; a fetch without a language header is served the same numbers in German). Kraken Pro spot tiers, columns "Spot 30-Day Vol (USD) OR", "Futures 30-Day Vol (USD) OR", "AoP (USD)", "Spot Maker (%)", "Spot Taker (%)": "Tier 1 $0+ < $5M N/A 0.40 % 0.80 %"; "Tier 2 $2.5K+ ≥ $5M N/A 0.30 % 0.60 %"; "Tier 3 $10K+ ≥ $10M 20k 0.22 % 0.38 %"; "Tier 12 $10M+ ≥ $300M 10m 0.0 % 0.10 %"; "Pro 5 $500M+ >5B 100m 0.0 % 0.05 %" (17 tiers in all). Tier rule: "Your tier is based on the best of :" spot volume, futures volume or assets on platform. Instant buy/sell, the default app surface: "Kraken charges a 1% trading fee on instant and recurring trades and a 1.5% fee on custom orders, which are waived for Kraken+ members on trading volume up to $10,000 per month (details below)." plus a spread the page discloses without a number: "the price you see includes a spread, the difference between the market rate and the rate you receive." and "Note: While trading fees are waived, spreads and card processing fees still apply." Small-balance conversion: "a fixed 3% fee applies to amounts below the minimum order size." Crypto withdrawals: a per-asset article exists (https://support.kraken.com/articles/360000767986, "Last updated: December 31, 2025") with the caveat "Withdrawal fees are subject to change and may differ from those displayed here; the final fees will be accurately shown at the time of confirmation."Bitvavo fees, read 29 September 2026. The fee schedule itself (https://bitvavo.com/en/fees) answered every fetch path today with a Cloudflare challenge (HTTP 403 to curl, to a rendering browser and to a reader proxy), so its tier table is not restated here. From Bitvavo's help article "What is the trading fee when I buy or sell crypto?" (https://support.bitvavo.com/hc/en-us/articles/4405175148689, "Updated September 23, 2026"): fees depend on "Your 30-day trading volume tier."; for orders that do not fill immediately "we reserve the maximum fee of 0.25%"; the page's own worked example: "€1000 x 0.25% = €2.50 fee." and "You will receive €997.50 after the fee is deducted."; and "Trading pairs involving USDC (USD Coin) typically have lower fees than Euro-based pairs." Crypto withdrawal fees are published per asset in Bitvavo's public API (https://api.bitvavo.com/v2/assets): Bitcoin "withdrawalFee":"0.000018", Ethereum "withdrawalFee":"0.0003". Euro withdrawal (https://support.bitvavo.com/hc/en-us/articles/4405188690065): "It also confirms that there are no fees for withdrawing euros." Price Guarantee orders (https://support.bitvavo.com/hc/en-us/articles/25974760217873): "the market maker adds a spread to account for any unforeseen price fluctuations during this period", with no number published for that mark-up.
Asset coverageEditorial——
Region fitSnapshotus, europe, caeurope
From the published criteria
Which should you pick?
Kraken
59#11 of 17
Pick it when
Pick Kraken if asset protection matters most — it scores 7/10 to Bitvavo's 6/10 there (weight 18).
Strength
Withdrawal incident record — 8/10
Tradeoff
The default Instant Buy surface charges 1% PLUS a spread Kraken discloses to exist but never numerically bounds — a recurring buyer who never finds Kraken Pro pays an unprintable premium on every order; and the support page warns withdrawal fees 'may differ from those displayed here'.
Bitvavo
63#10 of 17
Leads
Pick it when
Pick Bitvavo if withdrawal track record matters most — it scores 9/10 to Kraken's 8/10 there (weight 28).
Strength
Withdrawal incident record — 9/10
Tradeoff
The guaranteed-price buy flow — the interface the venue itself promotes for beginners as protection from slippage — carries a market-maker mark-up over mid-price that Bitvavo nowhere quantifies, and the counterparty on those trades is its own affiliate Inveniam B.V.; the buyer who never opens the order book will pay a spread with no published number on every trade, despite a pricing-policy sentence claiming 'No hidden costs or spreads beyond those published'.
Self-identify in 10 seconds
Which one is actually for you?
Kraken
Choose Kraken if asset protection matters most
Asset protection: 7/10 against 6/10 for Bitvavo (weight 18)
KrakenScore 592011-founded exchange with cross-metric fee tiers (volume OR holdings), a MiCA CASP custody policy and a self-disclosed 2024 exploit record — but its proof of reserves names no attestor and no cadence beyond 'a regular cadence', and its terms admit 'a court may disagree with our treatment of your Digital Assets'.Strength: Withdrawal incident record — 8/10Watch-out: The default Instant Buy surface charges 1% PLUS a spread Kraken discloses to exist but never numerically bounds — a recurring buyer who never finds Kraken Pro pays an unprintable premium on every order; and the support page warns withdrawal fees 'may differ from those displayed here'.
BitvavoLeads
Choose Bitvavo if withdrawal track record matters most
Withdrawal track record: 9/10 against 8/10 for Kraken (weight 28)
Licence coverage: 9/10 against 8/10 for Kraken (weight 24)
BitvavoScore 63AFM-licensed Dutch MiCA CASP (licence 41000010) serving the SEPA zone only, with a fully published 10-tier 0.15%/0.25% fee schedule, free SEPA in/out, a stichting-based bankruptcy-remote asset structure written into its terms, a third-party proof-of-reserves attestation its help centre describes as quarterly, and a self-disclosed, customer-guaranteed handling of its Genesis/DCG lending exposure (EUR 280M per contemporaneous reporting).Strength: Withdrawal incident record — 9/10Watch-out: The guaranteed-price buy flow — the interface the venue itself promotes for beginners as protection from slippage — carries a market-maker mark-up over mid-price that Bitvavo nowhere quantifies, and the counterparty on those trades is its own affiliate Inveniam B.V.; the buyer who never opens the order book will pay a spread with no published number on every trade, despite a pricing-policy sentence claiming 'No hidden costs or spreads beyond those published'.
Criterion by criterion
Scorecard
Published criteria · weight in points of 868 of 8 cells scored. Strength is read from the evidence file; the weight is the published one. Methodology
Trading cost
weight 7.2 of 86Tie
Kraken7/10 out of 10
Bitvavo7/10 out of 10
Withdrawal track record
by 1 of 10weight 6.7 of 86Bitvavo leads
Kraken8/10 out of 10
Bitvavo9/10 out of 10
Licence coverage
by 1 of 10weight 5.8 of 86Bitvavo leads
Kraken8/10 out of 10
Bitvavo9/10 out of 10
Asset protection
by 1 of 10weight 4.3 of 86Kraken leads
Kraken7/10 out of 10
Bitvavo6/10 out of 10
Score dimensions
weights sum to 86
The published score is five dimensions, each weighted for the category. "Published criteria" is the criteria block above; the other four are the engine's own terms — availability, friction, trust record, measured data. Each bar is one side's points out of that dimension's maximum; the weight beside the name is its points of the 86-point weighted total. The published criteria above can fill 24 of the block’s 30. A weight marked “constant here” belongs to a dimension every ranked product in the category holds at the same value: it still counts in the total, and it orders nothing here.
Availabilityweight 20 of 86
Kraken12/20Bitvavo6/20
Kraken leads
Published criteriaweight 30 of 86
Kraken18/30Bitvavo18.9/30
Bitvavo leads
Frictionweight 10 of 86 · constant here
Kraken2.7/10Bitvavo2.7/10
Tie
Trust recordweight 8 of 86 · constant here
Kraken3.2/8Bitvavo3.2/8
Tie
Measured dataweight 18 of 86
Kraken3.5/18Bitvavo10.1/18
Bitvavo leads
Decision rulePublished order
Choose Bitvavo unless the term Kraken leads on is the one you are buying.
Pick Kraken if asset protection matters most — it scores 7/10 to Bitvavo's 6/10 there (weight 18).
The published order weighs every criterion the same way for everyone. To weigh them your way, run .
From the published order
Next best action
If this isn't your case
Other matchups worth comparing
How you can lose money here, and what the ranking scores
Custody failure: whoever holds the assets loses or withholds them.
Scored by When this venue broke, did people get their money out — and how would I know? · 28% (Kraken 8/10, Bitvavo 9/10)
Insolvency failure: the firm or issuer that owes you cannot pay.
Scored by If this exchange fails — or freezes me — are the coins legally mine, and on whose terms? · 18% (Kraken 7/10, Bitvavo 6/10)
Regulatory failure: no licence where you are, or a forced market exit.
Scored by Whose licence actually covers me in my country — and can I find it on the register? · 24% (Kraken 8/10, Bitvavo 9/10)
Not assessed by this ranking: Control failure, Liveness failure, Execution failure, Exit failure. A high place says nothing about these; the Methodology tab says what each means.
Also scored, as cost, quality or a summary of several families: What will I actually pay here at my volume — including the spread they don't print? (30%).
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Bitvavo scores 4 points above Kraken, led by withdrawal track record and licence coverage. Published scores, out of 100: Kraken 59 (rank 11 of 17 exchanges), Bitvavo 63 (rank 10 of 17).
ReviewedRe-read in progressOverdue; re-read by 10 November 2026.Methodology v2026.10.18
How this page is reviewed
Reviewed means both products compared here was read against its sources on or after that date; every ranked category is re-read at least every 45 days. Models research, extract and parse. A deterministic engine ranks. Every quote passes an adversarial refute pass.
Answer a few quick questions and get one clear recommendation based on how you actually plan to use crypto — with rationale, tradeoffs, and a path to monitor the decision.
No signup·Free first pass · Private·No spam · No account
Not financial advice · Independent · Always do your own research
Not financial advice · For informational purposes only · Always do your own research
