Are you looking to buy some bitcoin but not sure exactly how to do it?
Well you’re in luck because I’m going to show you how you can buy bitcoin using Kraken. Kraken is my favorite exchange. They have super low fees, top-notch security and great customer service! I have had a really good experience with them. Keep stacking Sats!
How to Get Started on Kraken
The first thing you’re going to want to do is go to kraken.com and if you don’t have an account up in the upper right there it says “Create Account” When you sign up you are going to have to give them some personal information such as your email address a username password plus a bunch of KYC (Know Your Customer) information like your name, address, and a couple other things. Once you complete that KYC process you’ll have an account.
The Importance of Two-Factor Authentication
Two factor authentication is a must-have. If you don’t have that set up then please do it because it can save your butt! In fact a buddy of mine had his exchange account hacked. It all started when a hacker got a hold of a sim card and used it to log into his email address. The hacker was then able to log into his crypto exchange. Luckily for him there wasn’t any money nor any crypto on it but it could have turned out really bad for him if he did. This breach could have been prevented if he had two-factor authentication set up. That being said, the first thing you’re going to want to do once you have your account set up and you you get this screen you’re going to want to go up in the upper right to your name go to security 2FA settings that’s your two-factor authentication settings you can set it up with the Google Authenticator app which you just download on your phone and it provides a six-digit number that rotates and changes constantly. When you sign in you’ll just enter in that that code which is specific to your to your device so even if someone did get a hold of your sim card and got into your email or anything else they wouldn’t be able to access your Kraken account. I highly recommend setting that up. It’s pretty easy. You can also set it up for funding. So if you want to withdraw funds you have to put in that two-factor authentication code. I also recommend turning that on. You don’t want anybody withdrawing any money even if they somehow got logged in to your Kraken account. You could also turn it for trading. Personally, I don’t want to put in the code for every trade so I have that turned off. There’s also a master key which acts as an account recovery key if you lose or forget your sign in. That’s another two factor authentication you can have turned on. Finally, you can turn it on for API keys. I don’t use Kraken API right now so that is turned off. Just for the basics, you’re going to need to set it up for signing in and I would recommend turning on funding as well.
Once you have that set up you should see your current security level by clicking on the shield in the upper right next to your name. Mine is high so that’s good make sure yours is as high as you as you want it to be.
KYC Requirements
Let’s talk about the the KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements to get funding in. You will not be able to transfer any fiat currencies into kraken by just by providing your basic personal information when signing up. You can transfer in as much cryptocurrency as you want. However, withdrawals are limited to $5,000 a day. You can buy and sell as much as you want and trade with margin.
Now if you want to deposit fiat money, like US dollars or whatever currency you use, you’re going to need to get intermediate verification. There will be a button here that says verify. Click that and you’ll have to provide a form of identification, either a passport, a driver’s license or an id card. You’ll need to do a face verification with a face photo and proof of residence with either a utility bill, bank statement, credit card statement or proof of residency certificate.
Funding your Kraken Account with Fiat Currencies
With Kraken, I would recommend doing a wire transfer from your bank. They do allow you to do ACH transfers through a third party called Athena Custody. The bad thing about using Athena Custody is that you’ll have to complete another KYC process and open a joint account venture through them. That means you’re going to have to give all that same information that you just gave Kraken to another third party. Once you do that then you’ll be able to do ACH transfers. In my opinion, it’s not worth having that extra information with another third party. I’d rather just do a wire transfer.
Basically, you have two options MVB Bank or Signature. It doesn’t really matter which one you use. They’re pretty much the same. Mvb has a maximum limit of a million dollars through the wire transfer and using Signature Bank you can actually wire 10 million dollars.
Once you select a bank, you will see all of the information that you’ll need to complete the wire transfer. Just give all this information to your bank and complete the wire transfer. It’s as it’s as simple as that! Once the wire transfer is complete you’ll get an email from Kraken and you’ll see your current balance reflect your wire transfer. Now you are able to trade.
Buying Bitcoin on Kraken
There’s two ways to trade on Kraken. The first is by simply clicking the trade button. Then click buy XBT. XBT stands for bitcoin on Kraken. If you want to buy at the market rate you would have to click market. The problem is that you can’t enter in the us dollar amount. You have to enter in the bitcoin amount (for example .02 would be 370 dollars). If you’re trying to get $500 even then you’re gonna have to play with the bitcoin amount. Instead, I would highly recommend going up to the little black chart icon in the upper right. By clicking that, it’ll take you to the trading platform. This is really cool because it’ll show you the charts which you can analyze. To start trading you’re gonna have to click the connect button. It will basically just connect your Kraken account to the trading platform. Once it’s done loading, you can just click buy. If you want to do a market order which is buying it at the market price, you’d click market. You could also add leverage but I would not recommend doing that unless you know exactly what you are getting yourself into. I recommend leaving it at none. Stay humble. Now you can put in the dollar amount of bitcoin that you want to buy. So if you want to put a hundred dollars, right now it will get you .00539, that’s also 539,127 sats. Finally, would hit review and buy and click confirm buy. It’s as simple as that.
After you buy, you can go to your funding tab and you will see your XBT aka bitcoin balance under crypto assets. If you want to look at your trades, you could click the trades tab and you’ll see all of the trades that that you’ve done. You can then plug these numbers into a spreadsheet or or however you track your crypto trades.
Kraken has some of the lowest fees
I really like kraken is because of their low fees. They’re some of the lowest in the industry and I love saving money. Here’s here’s a link to their current fees. It’s based on how much you trade. So zero to fifty thousand within thirty days is 0.16% and 0.26% so that’s a fraction of a percent. That’s really nice.
Kraken is probably the best way to buy Bitcoin on your computer. They also have a mobile app which is super handy. It’s also really simple to use. By the way, Kraken recently got a banking charter and they’re going to open one of the first crypto banks up in Wyoming. That’s going to be super exciting. I’m going to make a road trip all the way to Wyoming to visit that bank when it opens and we’re going to see what it’s all about. I’ll show you what services they offer, so stay tuned for that.
⚖️**DISCLAIMER**⚖️
I have no affiliation with Kraken. All of my content is based on my own research and opinions and are not those of any organization or any other person. Always do your own research before making any financial and cryptocurrency related decisions.
