OKX scores 8 points above Kraken, on measured data rather than any published criterion. Kraken ranks #11 and OKX #7 of 17 published exchanges. Every term of the gap is on the ledger below; the inputs are on the audit receipt.
Kraken59
vs
OKX67
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99 · ranks #11 and #7 of 17
OKX scores 8 points above Kraken, on measured data rather than any published criterion.
Kraken #11 of 1759
OKX #7 of 1767
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99; a bar is empty at 41 and full at 99.
Why, term by termOKX leads on 0 of 4 published criteria; Kraken on 3. The terms sum to the gap.
TermOKXKrakenWeightPoints
Withdrawal track record7/108/106.7−1.7for Kraken−0.9 of 32
Licence coverage7/108/105.8−1.5for Kraken−0.8 of 32
Asset protection6/107/104.3−1.1for Kraken−0.6 of 32
Measured dataScore dimension8.33.518+12.5for OKX
Net of the terms+8.1
Criteria roundingThe criteria block is rounded to whole points before it is spread+0.2
Reproduced gap+8.3
Published gapAfter score rounding and bounds — see the note below6759+8.0
Weight is in points of the 86-point weighted total. Points are score points of the gap between the two.
OKX leads on no published criterion; Kraken is ahead on withdrawal track record. The gap comes from measured data.
OKXScore 67Global exchange with a monthly self-verified zk-STARK proof-of-reserves, a register-verified MiCA entity in Malta, a published 1.00% max-spread disclosure on its instant-buy surface — and a record that includes a five-week 2020 withdrawal suspension and a $505M 2025 DOJ settlement, both self-disclosed.Strength: Personal all in cost — 7/10Watch-out: Which OKX you get depends entirely on where you live: an EEA buyer contracts with a MiCA-segregated Malta entity at 0.10%/0.20% fees on a spot-only account (0.08%/0.10% only with a derivatives account), a US buyer pays 0.20%/0.35% and cannot sign up in New York or four US territories, and a UK buyer contracts with Aux Cayes FinTech in the Seychelles — the very entity that admitted the US licensing failure — under pooled-asset, unsecured-creditor terms. On every version, the default buy/convert surface can carry up to a 1.00% spread the fee table never shows.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.
FactKrakenOKX
PricingSnapshotKraken 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."OKX publishes one schedule per entity, and the reader pays the one that serves their country. EEA (https://www.okx.com/en-eu/fees, re-read 28 October 2026, "Spot-only account" tab): "Regular user" … "0.1000%" / "0.2000%" (maker / taker), the rate of an account with no derivatives account; the "Spot & derivatives account" tab reads "0.0800%" / "0.1000%", which a new reader does not have. US, OKX Inc. (https://www.okx.com/en-us/fees, re-read 28 October 2026): "Regular user" "0.2000%" / "0.3500%". Everyone else, the UK included, contracts with OKX's global entity at https://www.okx.com/fees, which redirects a German address to the EU page: that rate is not read, so this record carries no base rate and a reader outside the EEA and the US sees "regional rate not read".
Asset coverageEditorial——
Region fitSnapshotus, europe, caus, europe, asia
From the published criteria
Which should you pick?
Kraken
59#11 of 17
Pick it when
Pick Kraken if withdrawal track record matters most — it scores 8/10 to OKX's 7/10 there (weight 28).
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'.
OKX
67#7 of 17
Leads
Pick it when
OKX leads on no published criterion; its edge is measured data (8.3 vs 3.5 points). Pick it if that term is what you are buying.
Strength
Personal all in cost — 7/10
Tradeoff
Which OKX you get depends entirely on where you live: an EEA buyer contracts with a MiCA-segregated Malta entity at 0.10%/0.20% fees on a spot-only account (0.08%/0.10% only with a derivatives account), a US buyer pays 0.20%/0.35% and cannot sign up in New York or four US territories, and a UK buyer contracts with Aux Cayes FinTech in the Seychelles — the very entity that admitted the US licensing failure — under pooled-asset, unsecured-creditor terms. On every version, the default buy/convert surface can carry up to a 1.00% spread the fee table never shows.
Self-identify in 10 seconds
Which one is actually for you?
Kraken
Choose Kraken if withdrawal track record matters most
Withdrawal track record: 8/10 against 7/10 for OKX (weight 28)
Licence coverage: 8/10 against 7/10 for OKX (weight 24)
Asset protection: 7/10 against 6/10 for OKX (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'.
OKXLeads
OKX leads Kraken on no published criterion
Choose it only if something outside the published criteria decides for you — your country, a funding rail, or custody.
OKXScore 67Global exchange with a monthly self-verified zk-STARK proof-of-reserves, a register-verified MiCA entity in Malta, a published 1.00% max-spread disclosure on its instant-buy surface — and a record that includes a five-week 2020 withdrawal suspension and a $505M 2025 DOJ settlement, both self-disclosed.Strength: Personal all in cost — 7/10Watch-out: Which OKX you get depends entirely on where you live: an EEA buyer contracts with a MiCA-segregated Malta entity at 0.10%/0.20% fees on a spot-only account (0.08%/0.10% only with a derivatives account), a US buyer pays 0.20%/0.35% and cannot sign up in New York or four US territories, and a UK buyer contracts with Aux Cayes FinTech in the Seychelles — the very entity that admitted the US licensing failure — under pooled-asset, unsecured-creditor terms. On every version, the default buy/convert surface can carry up to a 1.00% spread the fee table never shows.
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
OKX7/10 out of 10
Withdrawal track record
by 1 of 10weight 6.7 of 86Kraken leads
Kraken8/10 out of 10
OKX7/10 out of 10
Licence coverage
by 1 of 10weight 5.8 of 86Kraken leads
Kraken8/10 out of 10
OKX7/10 out of 10
Asset protection
by 1 of 10weight 4.3 of 86Kraken leads
Kraken7/10 out of 10
OKX6/10 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
Kraken12/20OKX12/20
Tie
Published criteriaweight 30 of 86
Kraken18/30OKX16.4/30
Kraken leads
Frictionweight 10 of 86 · constant here
Kraken2.7/10OKX2.7/10
Tie
Trust recordweight 8 of 86 · constant here
Kraken3.2/8OKX3.2/8
Tie
Measured dataweight 18 of 86
Kraken3.5/18OKX8.3/18
OKX leads
Decision rulePublished order
Choose OKX unless the term Kraken leads on is the one you are buying.
Pick Kraken if withdrawal track record matters most — it scores 8/10 to OKX's 7/10 there (weight 28).
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, OKX 7/10)
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, OKX 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, OKX 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
OKX scores 8 points above Kraken, on measured data rather than any published criterion. Published scores, out of 100: Kraken 59 (rank 11 of 17 exchanges), OKX 67 (rank 7 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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