Kraken vs Gemini: Fees, State Rules and Withdrawals Compared

Kraken Pro charges less than Gemini ActiveTrader on crypto pairs at the entry tier (0.40%/0.80% vs 0.60%/1.20%). Kraken doesn’t serve New York or Maine, and Gemini serves all 50 states.

You’re about to send money to one of these two, and the right pick depends on three things: where you live, which screen you buy on, and how soon you want coins in your own wallet. Every fee and rule below is as of 17 October 2026.

If you live in New York or Maine, the choice is made for you. Kraken doesn’t open accounts there, and Gemini does. Everywhere else it’s a real trade-off. On crypto pairs, Kraken’s order book costs less unless you trade heavily, and its simple Buy screen publishes a flat fee. Gemini doesn’t publish one for its simple screen. You see it on the review screen, right before you confirm.

Decide on the screen first. Without Kraken+, that one choice moves your Kraken fee on a $1,000 buy anywhere from $4.00 to $15.00 before the spread. On Gemini it’s $6.00 to $12.00 on the order book, or whatever the review screen shows.

In this article

1. Which one you can use in your state
2. What a $1,000 buy costs on each screen
3. Kraken Pro vs ActiveTrader as your volume grows
4. Getting dollars in, and the wait before you can withdraw
5. Withdrawing to your own wallet
6. Staking, margin and the other extras
7. Custody, insurance and account security
8. The scam that copies both: fake support
9. Frequently Asked Questions
10. What to do next

Which one you can use in your state

Kraken doesn’t offer services to residents of Maine or New York. If you move out of either state, you can verify with your new address and a proof-of-residence document. Gemini’s availability page lists all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.

On Gemini, the company that holds your account depends on your state. Under its user agreement, residents of Idaho, Louisiana, New York, Ohio and Texas are customers of Gemini Trust Company, LLC, a New York limited purpose trust company. Everyone else, including D.C. and Puerto Rico, signs with Gemini Moonbase, LLC, a Delaware company headquartered in Florida. The address on your Gemini profile decides which one you get.

That matters because the New York trust charter Gemini got in October 2015 covers Gemini Trust Company. If you live in California or Florida, the custody and insurance terms that apply to you are the ones in the Moonbase agreement. Your state also decides some Gemini products: in New York you get Gemini Staking, but not Asset Rewards or margin.

Texas has a Kraken quirk too. Kraken’s ACH link through Plaid is only open to accounts outside Texas. If you’re in Texas, check which USD deposit methods your Kraken account shows before you count on ACH.

What a $1,000 buy costs on each screen

Both exchanges give you two ways to buy. The simple Buy screen quotes a price with a fee and a spread built in. The order book (Kraken Pro and Gemini ActiveTrader) charges a published maker or taker fee instead. A taker order fills right away against the book. A maker order rests on the book until someone else fills it.

The card and PayPal rows are funding charges. They come on top of the trading fee, so card funding plus Kraken’s 1% adds up to $47.75 on that buy before the spread. Use ACH or a wire if you can wait a few days.

Gemini’s fee schedule for its simple screen, dated 15 February 2026, doesn’t list a rate. The fee depends on your payment method, order size, market conditions, state and asset, and two similar orders can cost different amounts. Read it on the review screen before you confirm.

Kraken’s fee schedule offers a way around its 1%. Kraken+ costs $4.99 a month after a free 30-day trial, both offered only in the Kraken mobile app (the website sells annual plans). It waives the Buy, Sell and Convert fee on up to $10,000 a month. It doesn’t touch Kraken Pro, and spreads and payment processing fees, such as card fees, still apply. If you’d buy more than $499 a month on the simple screen, it costs less than the fee it removes.

A limit order that rests on the book pays the maker rate, which is lower than the taker rate on both exchanges. A buy limit set below the current ask waits on the book, though it only fills if the price comes down to it.

Kraken Pro vs ActiveTrader as your volume grows

Both order books cut your fee as your 30-day trading volume rises, and both let a large balance qualify you instead. Here’s the ActiveTrader schedule (1 September 2026) next to Kraken’s tiers.

Below the $75,000 row, Kraken Pro is cheaper on maker and taker orders at every volume tier. From that row up, ActiveTrader’s taker fee is equal or lower at every published volume tier. Maker fees swap back and forth, so check the row for your volume.

The balance route is where the two differ most. Kraken counts your Assets on Platform at the moment it checks, so a $20,000 balance alone lowers your rate, with no trading at all. Gemini’s first balance tier needs $1 million. The catch on Kraken: if prices drop, your balance drops, and your tier can drop with it right away.

Two more details move the math. Kraken doesn’t count Instant Buy purchases toward your Kraken Pro volume. Gemini leaves stablecoin pairs out of your volume and recalculates tiers daily at about 2am UTC.

Getting dollars in, and the wait before you can withdraw

Here’s the US dollar side, from Kraken’s deposit table and Gemini’s transfer fee schedule (20 January 2026).

The hold is what catches people. Kraken lets you trade a Plaid ACH deposit at once, but cash or crypto equal to the deposit can’t be withdrawn for seven days. A USD card buy can trigger the 72-hour hold every time, not just the first. Kraken’s Plaid link also needs a US bank account in the same name as your Kraken account.

If you want coins in your own wallet the same week, a wire is the cleanest route into Kraken, if your account offers it: no Kraken fee and no hold. Your bank’s own wire fee still applies, since Kraken’s deposit fees don’t include it. If the deposit instructions show a reference, your Kraken Public account ID starting with AA, put it on the wire so the deposit isn’t held up.

Withdrawing to your own wallet

Both exchanges let you send crypto to a wallet you control, and they price it differently. Kraken lists a fee and a minimum for each coin, and its funding fees can be fixed or variable. The fee on the confirmation screen is the one you pay. Gemini charges a dynamic fee meant to match the network fee at that moment and doesn’t pocket any of it. For Ethereum tokens (ERC-20), Gemini takes the gas fee in the token you’re sending.

1. Copy the address fresh from your wallet’s Receive screen, for the exact coin and network you’ll use, such as bitcoin on the Bitcoin network. Don’t copy it from your transaction history.
2. On Kraken, go to Withdraw, pick the coin, choose Add new withdrawal address and paste it. Unless you’re on a trusted device, confirm it from the email link within one hour. On Gemini, go to Settings, then Address Book, then Add address, enter the address and click Continue to save it.
3. Check that the network matches on both ends. Different coins can share the same address format, so an address that looks valid doesn’t prove you picked the right network.
4. Compare the address on the withdrawal screen with the one in your wallet at the start, in the middle and at the end. In an address poisoning scam, someone sends you a tiny transfer from a look-alike address that matches the start and end, hoping you’ll copy it from your history.
5. Send a small test first when the amount matters, and wait until it shows up in your wallet. Then send the rest.

Two settings slow this down on purpose. With Gemini’s Withdrawal Protection on, a newly added address waits 7 days before crypto can go to it, and switching the protection off takes another week. With Kraken’s Global Settings Lock on, you can’t add a new address at all, and unlocking it without your Master Key takes the waiting period you picked when you set it.

Both are worth turning on, because they slow down anyone who gets into your account, too. Save your own wallet address first, so the wait doesn’t land on the day you want to withdraw. Crypto transfers can’t be reversed.

Before the first transfer, write down your wallet’s seed phrase. Once coins leave the exchange, the exchange can’t get them back for you.

Staking, margin and the other extras

Kraken’s staking help page (updated 19 August 2026) puts its cut at 30% of rewards on flexible staking and Auto Earn. On bonded staking it takes 25% below $1 million staked, less on bigger balances. Its fee schedule says 20% for flexible staking of coins with an unbonding period. Plan on the higher 30%, and note that the APY in the Kraken app is before its commission. On flexible staking of a coin with an unbonding period, you earn rewards on up to half of what you stake.

Gemini Staking’s fee schedule (7 October 2026) covers ETH, SOL, MON and HYPE and takes up to 35% of the rewards. Gemini also runs Asset Rewards, a separate program for the same four coins, and it can be on without you doing anything.

In most states you’re enrolled in Asset Rewards automatically unless you opt out under Account Settings, then Asset Rewards. In California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Texas and Washington you have to opt in, and New York residents can’t use it (FAQ dated June 2026). Coins in it aren’t locked, though Gemini can queue withdrawals if requests ever outrun its liquidity. The FAQ gives Gemini’s commission as 30% in one section and 35% in another. Kraken’s Auto Earn, by contrast, only runs once you turn it on.

Your state decides whether you can stake at all. Kraken’s on-chain staking covers 37 states plus D.C. and Puerto Rico (list updated 30 March 2026). Alabama, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin aren’t on it, and Kraken’s Rewards feature is limited to select US states. If staking doesn’t show up in your Kraken account, you may not be eligible. Gemini Staking runs in certain US jurisdictions and opened to New York customers on 10 February 2026.

Unstaking takes time on bonded coins. On Gemini Staking, ETH unbonding runs 6 to 60 days and SOL about 3 to 4, and you can’t sell or withdraw during that window. Kraken’s bonded terms wait 3 or more days depending on the coin, while its flexible terms let you unstake at any time.

Staking isn’t risk-free on either exchange: rewards can shrink or stop, and slashing can take part of the staked coins. Kraken compensates slashing with exceptions set out in its terms, and Gemini may reimburse slashing caused by its own infrastructure.

Margin is a bigger split. Kraken offers margin trading to eligible US retail clients, and futures through Kraken Derivatives US, a futures commission merchant registered with the CFTC. Gemini’s margin terms (10 November 2025) limit margin to Moonbase customers who qualify as Eligible Contract Participants, which leaves out residents of the five Trust Company states.

Custody, insurance and account security

Coins you don’t trade are better off in a wallet you control, once you’ve backed it up.

Is Gemini in trouble?

Gemini is getting smaller. Gemini Space Station, Inc. approved a plan to leave the UK, the EU and other European countries, and Australia, and to cut about 25% of its global workforce, according to its 8-K report dated 5 February 2026. Its US and Singapore business continues. Gemini closed its UK, EEA and Australian customer accounts effective 6 April 2026.

The Earn case is closed. On 23 January 2026, the SEC and Gemini Trust Company filed to dismiss the case with prejudice, with the SEC pointing to the 100 percent in-kind return of Earn investors’ crypto.

The scam that copies both: fake support

The FBI’s 2025 IC3 report counts 181,565 crypto-related complaints and $11.366 billion in losses. Fake tech and customer support with a crypto link accounts for about $1.226 billion of that.

The script is the same for both brands. Someone calls you, texts you or answers a fake support number you found online, tells you your account is at risk, and walks you into moving coins to a safe wallet or reading back a code. Both companies rule this out in writing.

If anything like this reaches you, hang up or close the message, then open the app yourself and check there. Kraken’s list also rules out installing remote access apps such as AnyDesk or TeamViewer, and switching off your Global Settings Lock unless you asked Kraken for help first. Crypto sent to a scammer can’t be pulled back. Kraken’s scam guide adds that anyone offering to recover it for a fee is a scammer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use Kraken if I live in New York?

No. Kraken’s exclusion also covers its stock brokerage and advisory companies, and it applies to Maine as well. In New York, Gemini is open to you, and your account sits with Gemini Trust Company, LLC. Gemini Staking has been available there since February 2026, but Asset Rewards and margin aren’t.

What’s better than Kraken?

That depends on what you pay for. Gemini’s taker fees match or beat Kraken’s at the higher volume tiers, and Gemini is the one that serves New York and Maine. If you want to look past these two, the best crypto exchanges overview lines up other US options by fees and state limits.

Is Kraken better than Coinbase?

Run the same three checks: your state, your screen and your monthly volume. Coinbase vs Kraken puts both fee schedules side by side, tier by tier, and Coinbase vs Gemini does the same for Gemini.

How do I move bitcoin from Gemini to Kraken?

Open Deposit in Kraken, choose Bitcoin on the Bitcoin network, and copy the address it shows. Send more than Kraken’s minimum: it counts after network fees, and a deposit below it is lost. Save the address in Gemini’s Address Book, withdraw on the same network, and check Gemini’s dynamic fee before you confirm. Coins you move in count as noncovered, so Kraken doesn’t have to report their cost basis. Keep your Gemini purchase records.

Do Kraken and Gemini send a 1099-DA?

Yes, for crypto you sell there. For 2025 sales, both reported only gross proceeds to the IRS on Form 1099-DA, so that figure isn’t your gain or loss, and Kraken skips the form when your activity stays under the IRS reporting thresholds. From 2026, the IRS instructions also require cost basis for coins you bought on that exchange after 2025, but not for coins you transferred in. Gemini reports staking rewards on a separate form, the 1099-MISC.

What to do next

Start with your state, then pick the screen you’ll actually use, and check that day’s rate on the exchange’s own fee page. Gemini posts ActiveTrader changes at least three days before they take effect, and Kraken changed its tiers on 9 July 2026. Save your wallet address, then turn on Global Settings Lock or Withdrawal Protection before your first deposit. On Gemini, decide whether Asset Rewards stays on. Fund by ACH or wire if you can wait, and make your first withdrawal a small test.

Drafted with AI by the LakeBTC Editorial Team, then edited and fact-checked against the sources linked in the text. How we use AI · Report an error

Update history 2

1. Oct 23, 2026 Removed the statement that Gemini requires a passkey to approve a new withdrawal address, because Gemini's Address Book help page no longer says so, and described the current steps instead.
2. Oct 19, 2026 Rewritten and re-checked against primary sources.