Kraken Reviews 

UPDATE — 25 OCTOBER 2026: KRAKEN'S PUBLIC RESPONSE
Kraken has responded publicly, suggesting that I contact its team through a social-media direct message.
But Kraken's official support team has ALREADY refused any exception or expedited review before the minimum 90-day period, despite my extensive correspondence and formal complaint.
What exactly would contacting Kraken through social media achieve that its official support and complaints departments have refused to do?
Kraken already has my complaint references, supporting evidence and verified contact details.
If its Trustpilot representative genuinely wants to help, they should personally escalate my EXISTING complaint to someone with authority to reconsider the restrictions and arrange for that person to contact me directly.
Another generic referral to support is not a solution.

- original post -
I am an experienced Australian crypto investor acting independently.

In October 2026, I transferred approximately A$80,000 from my own bank account to my fully identity-verified Kraken account using its authorised PayID/Osko facility. I made daily deposits within the PayID limits Kraken had approved and purchased USDT through Kraken Pro.

My intention was to transfer my crypto to my Ledger hardware wallet for self-custody, reducing the risks of leaving substantial holdings on a centralised exchange.

On 15 October, Kraken notified me that crypto withdrawals had been disabled for a MINIMUM of 90 DAYS because its monitoring allegedly detected scam-related patterns. I was not acting under anyone else's instructions. Kraken has not identified any particular suspicious transaction to me or given a meaningful case-specific explanation.

Crucially, 90 days is NOT a guaranteed release date. Kraken says I must wait at least that long merely to request a review, with no assurance that withdrawals will be restored.

More alarming, other customers have publicly reported fresh withdrawal restrictions after earlier restrictions ended or withdrawals were cleared—including repeated 90-day periods. These unverified customer reports raise a serious question: what prevents customers from being trapped in repeated restrictions with no definite end date?

Around A$80,000 in cryptocurrency is affected. I am not alleging the assets have disappeared or been stolen. Kraken says I can sell my crypto and withdraw AUD to my own bank account. But forcing me to liquidate my investment is NOT equivalent to letting me transfer my own cryptocurrency into self-custody; selling may also have fee and tax implications.

My identity is already fully verified. I have offered reasonable source-of-funds evidence and proof that my wallet is mine. Why not examine those safeguards or arrange a supervised transfer rather than refusing an individual review for at least three months?

Kraken also severely restricted AUD funding. My overall cash deposit limits were US$250,000 daily and US$1.25 MILLION monthly. Kraken had increased my separate PayID limits from A$10,000 daily/A$40,000 monthly to A$20,000 daily/A$80,000 monthly, with RTGS deposits available.

On 15 October, Kraken removed RTGS completely and reduced PayID to A$10,000 daily/A$40,000 monthly. Having already deposited over A$40,000 that month, I had no remaining PayID capacity. I had simply made legitimate deposits from my bank account within Kraken's approved daily limits.

Kraken's complaint handling has been deeply unsatisfactory. I complained formally on 15 October and via its official system on 16 October. Support repeated generic scam-prevention policy. On 19 October, I was told there would be no exception or expedited review before 90 days. My original ticket was marked "Solved" while the restriction remained.

On 17 October I complained to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), seeking urgent review and a verified self-custody withdrawal, not compensation.

I also tried to warn others on Reddit. My new account could not post in r/KrakenSupport; a separate r/Kraken post was removed by Reddit's filters; and attempts to contact moderators failed. I complained separately to Reddit. I cannot establish Kraken's involvement in these issues, but I could not share my experience there.

My warning: Kraken may take your AUD deposits and let you buy crypto, yet prevent you from withdrawing it to your own wallet for at least three months, with no immediate review and no guaranteed end date. Public reports of repeated restrictions make that possibility more troubling.

Consider these risks BEFORE depositing substantial sums.

As of 25 October 2026, my request for a specific explanation, immediate review and secure self-custody transfer remains unresolved.

It had hidden fee which I didn't like as I bought the crypto worth $200 but when it came to my account it was automatically $191, where did my money go? As it was showing $0 fee for premium users as I had 1 month free trial, very disappointed with this app, and also I referred 2 of my friends and they never got referral bonus and even they signup from my referral link in front of me but it shows I never referred to them, I don't know what's the issue with Kraken.

Signed up with a referral im homeless and coult of used the 350 use offered so I got s holy 45 dollars where he got 350. Really messed up screwing over the homeless man

I signed up for Kraken and referred a friend. They got their half of the referral bonus but I did!’t when I contacted Kraken to get this resolved they have me the run around before simply disconnecting the chat refusing to provide any information or assistance.

Cancelled referral bonuses with no reason

Long story short.... about an year ago I started my first Crypto exchange with Coinbase. In the beginning I liked the app. I use my Galaxy S9 android and do all my Crypto on it, so I am particularly concerned about the app GUI interface to be easy to use with LESS clicking on many buttons to see ALL information in one page. Well, Coinbase has did 5 major updates... and their GUI app now sucks! They added so many things I'm not interested in and you have to click so many buttons to see your Crypto information. And, some features are missing or not working correctly. I was watching the YouTube " Coin Vault " guys live talking. I told them i was not happy with Coinbase's app latest 5 updates.... what other exchange would you recommend 🤔. They said, " Kraken " .
So, it's been about a month and I'm very happy with Kraken. I have moved more than half of my Crypto over to Kraken.
I do have a major CONCERN with Kraken at this time. I have done TWO referrals ( my daughter and best friend ). Both of them did the $200 deposit and traded $200 worth of Crypto.... well it's been over a week and so far i have NOT received my REWARD? I have checked the status and it acts like I did nothing.... zero ??? I sent the referral LINK . PLEASE HELP
Thank you .... Jame Alkire

Fees higher than expected
And no USD direct bonus adquired as my referral promotion claimed

I met their conditions for a referral bonus. They confirmed as much in an automated email and manually over an email that their employees wrote to me. The automated email said they'll pay the $10 in 2 weeks. In 5 weeks, instead of the 2 they promised, they replied to me in an email just because I pushed for an answer. They wrote: "As indicated in our terms, referral bonuses are not guaranteed and Kraken reserves the right to limit, modify, or terminate the referral program at any time, for any reason, and without notice."

In other words, they're pathetic thieves and liars, and they think that's fine, because in this stinking legal system, they can get away with terms and conditions which they wrote, which let them get away with deceiving others and keeping the money.

Kraken cannot be trusted, and they themselves confirm as much in their writing in their "Legalese" language.

It's easy to trade, simple to start and with a referral it helped jumpstart a trading mindset

Very disappointed with Kraken.
The €200 referral reward feels more like a fantasy than a real promotion.
I followed every step: deposited over €1,000, bought and sold crypto exactly as required, and after more than a month — still nothing.
New users deserve better transparency

Never paid my referral bonus, said they weren’t guaranteed, and they arre only put out in good faith. So I have reported them to Ohio attorney general and the FTC for fraud. All I really wanted was to talk to a human, but that time is over myself and my firm are going to make an example of them, so other sites don’t follow their lead and hard working people who work 2 jobs to afford this country, try hard in those referral programs to earn money finish what is asked them to then to finally be told no it’s a good faith program.i have copies of them all it will be coming their way soon in triplicate with what in the end will be a class action suit, this has happened numerous times with them. In response to the comment below no, I’ve been push and pulled back and forth from specialized team to specialized team that are nothing but bots, probably like response you gave me. This is just a review, You should see what the message boards are flowing with. It’s not about the $200 for me it’s about them believing a strategy of if we keep him going place to place ,bot to bot tell him to wait 24-48hrs send him another email he will give up like they all do that it is all just corporate verbal nonsense, that if you actually know thats it’s just made long, with big scary words and codes with numbers that mean nothing, That traps are put in to spring another in terms and services, you will realize that the million dollar group of attorneys just copy and pasted it with hole after hole to walk right through. I’m going to make you work and lose well over $200 call it “Good Faith”. I’ve told your other people bots whatever, do yourselves a favor stop putting guilt on paper, Really should just call people a voice mail is deleted and email will be here forever, that’s corporate 101. One more thing the fact that you let a review get to me, is exactly what I’ve been talking about.

Invited 2 friends, there was no referral, tried to talk to support two times, just a bot that couldn't help me and an agent that answered some days later, didn't understand the issue and didn't reply anymore.

It's been okay but the sign up referral I got from my friend was really misleading. It kept saying get your $100. I made a $200 deposit & after waiting for the bonus it only ended up being $20. Which I wouldn't have cared but it kept on acting like it was gonna be more. Get up to $200 was mentioned & then in the corner of my home screen in Kraken it said claim your $100. It was all misleading. That's my feed back to your company is to be more transparent. I like your site & what you offer. Let that be the sell point. Be transparent with what new referrals are going to get us my recommendation.

I did my first trade and it offered me to upgrade free for a month where I wouldn’t have to pay the fee for the trade. I clicked on that, it showed the fee taken off and I committed to the buy. Somehow I was charged the fee. It felt like bait and switch. I also joined Kraken through a referral where I wouldn’t get $200 and my friend would get $200, but I can’t find anything on that either, so that probably won’t happen. Trying to communicate with someone has been a waste of time. Be aware!

I am extremely disappointed with Kraken customer support and their referral bonus system.
On May 10th, I contacted support requesting human assistance because not even the chatbot was able to answer my question properly. I was told to wait 24 hours for a response, but until today I am still waiting.
This raises serious concerns about their communication and customer service quality.
What makes the situation even worse is the “Refer a Friend” bonus. I referred my husband because I wanted to test whether the promotion actually worked before recommending it to other friends. According to the advertisement, both the person referring and the referred person should receive a bonus. However, neither of us received anything.
At this point, it feels misleading and very poorly managed. If the company cannot handle a simple support request or properly honor its own referral promotion, it seriously affects trust in the platform.
Very disappointing experience.

If anyone plans to complete activities from Krak / Kraken for bonuses or referral rewards, keep in mind that even after fulfilling all the requirements, the reward may still be canceled retroactively.

In my case, all conditions were completed before the changes regarding Ukraine, but support informed me that the payout was canceled with no possibility of restoration. Therefore, I do not recommend spending time on these activities if you are relying specifically on the bonuses.

A year ago, I could use the exchange without any problems. Now I can't trade, send money, or do anything with my funds. There's zero communication with support, just a stupid bot that doesn't do anything, and then I have to wait over 100 hours for an email from (real??) support. The email redirects to a broken website. A year ago, it was a great exchange with a great referral program. Now it's a complete scam with a nonexistent contact channel. I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT, STAY AWAY. (This is coming from someone who usually has the patience to contact Supper.)

Edit1: In any of the Kraken apps (i.e. Pro, KrakApp, Basic) there's no detailed information about what's going on or why nothing works. There's only a message asking to contact support (of course, there's no contact information) and a link to an FAQ that doesn't help because it only contains idiotic information like limits or kyEdic.

Edit 2: i will show for you screen shots, after 12h, after public this review, sorry for my english, i think Kraken can be next Zonda. Be carefull guys!!

Edit 3: ohh i was forgott, my friend have new account with complete kyc, and verivied everything importany documents, and have same problem what me. Why ?? Of Course some kinds of limits what you have on your account wasnt show if you was deposit money... WTF

Kraken is a total scam app. I signed up using a referral link and didn’t receive any payouts. They’ll show you your net worth as a high number and then when you try to sell them they’ll quote a lower price. Oh also there’s a minimum fee on cash withdrawal.

I still have not received my referral bonus for invited my friend to join Kraken. My friends name is Talwinder Sohi. I will not refer any more of my friends until I receive this bonus.

They lie to you telling you refer a friend and get Up to 200. Just bogus. You get 25 bux. Just like any other exchanges