Kraken scores 12 points above Gemini, led by trading cost, withdrawal track record, and licence coverage. Kraken ranks #11 and Gemini #14 of 17 published exchanges. Every term of the gap is on the ledger below; the inputs are on the audit receipt.
Kraken59
vs
Gemini47
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99 · ranks #11 and #14 of 17
Criteria roundingThe criteria block is rounded to whole points before it is spread−0.1
Reproduced gap+12.0
Weight is in points of the 86-point weighted total. Points are score points of the gap between the two.
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'.GeminiScore 47NYDFS-chartered trust-company exchange with best-in-pool custody law and the pool's highest published base fees — now retrenched to the US (plus Singapore) after self-disclosed exits from the UK, EEA and Australia in early 2026.Strength: Insolvency and account terms — 8/10Watch-out: The account can be closed out from under you by geography: Gemini gave every UK, EEA and Australian customer roughly a month from announcement (2026-02-02) to forced withdrawal-only (2026-03-05), and Gemini says it 'ceased operations in the UK and Europe' from 6 April 2026 — and for those who stay, the default interface never publishes what a trade costs until the review screen, while the pro book starts at the pool's highest base rate (0.60%/1.20%) until you clear $10K of 30-day volume or hold a $1M asset balance.
Quick facts
At a glance
1 of 3 rows read the same for both.
FactKrakenGemini
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."Gemini ActiveTrader Fee Schedule, read 29 September 2026 at https://www.gemini.com/fees/activetrader-fee-schedule (dated "September 1, 2026"; "The following terms apply to all orders placed via the ActiveTrader and exchange API interfaces."). Spot maker / taker by 30-day volume or asset balance: "≥ $0" "0.600%" / "1.200%"; "$10K" (or "$1M" balance) "0.400%" / "0.800%"; "$25K" (or "$5M") "0.250%" / "0.500%"; "$75K" (or "$15M") "0.125%" / "0.250%"; "$250K" (or "$25M") "0.075%" / "0.150%"; "$500K" "0.060%" / "0.125%"; "$1M" "0.050%" / "0.100%"; down to "$250M" "0.000%" / "0.020%". Tier rule: "Your fee tier is based on either your total trailing 30-day trading volume across all order books (excluding volume traded on stablecoin pairs) or your total asset balance (in USD)." Stablecoins: "RLUSD/USD, USDC/GUSD, and GUSD/USD pairs" "0.00%" / "0.00%"; "All other stablecoin pairs" "0.00%" / "0.01%". Default Gemini interface (https://www.gemini.com/fees/gemini-fee-schedule, dated "February 15, 2026") publishes no number: "You can view the fees in the trade review screen prior to confirming your transaction." and "When you place an Instant order or a Recurring order, Gemini includes a spread in the quoted price." Transfers (https://www.gemini.com/fees/transfer-fee-schedule, dated "January 20, 2026"): ACH deposit and withdrawal "Free"; USD wire withdrawal "$25"; debit card "3.49% of total purchase amount"; PayPal "2.50% of total deposit amount"; crypto withdrawal fees are dynamic and "will be displayed to you prior to the initiation of your withdrawal."
Asset coverageEditorial——
Region fitSnapshotus, europe, caus, asia
From the published criteria
Which should you pick?
Kraken
59#11 of 17
Leads
Pick it when
Pick Kraken if trading cost matters most — it scores 7/10 to Gemini's 5/10 there (weight 30).
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'.
Gemini
47#14 of 17
Pick it when
Pick Gemini if asset protection matters most — it scores 8/10 to Kraken's 7/10 there (weight 18).
Strength
Insolvency and account terms — 8/10
Tradeoff
The account can be closed out from under you by geography: Gemini gave every UK, EEA and Australian customer roughly a month from announcement (2026-02-02) to forced withdrawal-only (2026-03-05), and Gemini says it 'ceased operations in the UK and Europe' from 6 April 2026 — and for those who stay, the default interface never publishes what a trade costs until the review screen, while the pro book starts at the pool's highest base rate (0.60%/1.20%) until you clear $10K of 30-day volume or hold a $1M asset balance.
Self-identify in 10 seconds
Which one is actually for you?
KrakenLeads
Choose Kraken if trading cost matters most
Trading cost: 7/10 against 5/10 for Gemini (weight 30)
Withdrawal track record: 8/10 against 6/10 for Gemini (weight 28)
Licence coverage: 8/10 against 7/10 for Gemini (weight 24)
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'.
Gemini
Choose Gemini if asset protection matters most
Asset protection: 8/10 against 7/10 for Kraken (weight 18)
GeminiScore 47NYDFS-chartered trust-company exchange with best-in-pool custody law and the pool's highest published base fees — now retrenched to the US (plus Singapore) after self-disclosed exits from the UK, EEA and Australia in early 2026.Strength: Insolvency and account terms — 8/10Watch-out: The account can be closed out from under you by geography: Gemini gave every UK, EEA and Australian customer roughly a month from announcement (2026-02-02) to forced withdrawal-only (2026-03-05), and Gemini says it 'ceased operations in the UK and Europe' from 6 April 2026 — and for those who stay, the default interface never publishes what a trade costs until the review screen, while the pro book starts at the pool's highest base rate (0.60%/1.20%) until you clear $10K of 30-day volume or hold a $1M asset balance.
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
by 2 of 10weight 7.2 of 86Kraken leads
Kraken7/10 out of 10
Gemini5/10 out of 10
Withdrawal track record
by 2 of 10weight 6.7 of 86Kraken leads
Kraken8/10 out of 10
Gemini6/10 out of 10
Licence coverage
by 1 of 10weight 5.8 of 86Kraken leads
Kraken8/10 out of 10
Gemini7/10 out of 10
Asset protection
by 1 of 10weight 4.3 of 86Gemini leads
Kraken7/10 out of 10
Gemini8/10 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
Kraken12/20Gemini11/20
Kraken leads
Published criteriaweight 30 of 86
Kraken18/30Gemini15.1/30
Kraken leads
Frictionweight 10 of 86 · constant here
Kraken2.7/10Gemini2.7/10
Tie
Trust recordweight 8 of 86 · constant here
Kraken3.2/8Gemini3.2/8
Tie
Measured dataweight 18 of 86
Kraken3.5/18Gemini2.8/18
Kraken leads
Decision rulePublished order
Choose Kraken unless the term Gemini leads on is the one you are buying.
Pick Gemini if asset protection matters most — it scores 8/10 to Kraken's 7/10 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, Gemini 6/10)
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, Gemini 8/10)
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, Gemini 7/10)
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
Kraken scores 12 points above Gemini, led by trading cost, withdrawal track record, and licence coverage. Published scores, out of 100: Kraken 59 (rank 11 of 17 exchanges), Gemini 47 (rank 14 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.
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