In short: the difference
First in the pair, Gate, is an exchange with thousands of pairs. On the market since 2013, jurisdiction: Panama, its own GT token.
Second in the pair, Kraken, is an exchange for real-money settlement. On the market since 2011, jurisdiction: San Francisco, USA.
What Gate gives you
Against a regulated venue, Gate wins on other things: One of the oldest venues, running since 2013, and first in our coverage for withdrawal networks: twenty-four for USDT alone. Two thousand spot pairs and a thousand perpetuals. There is P2P, savings and staking, Startup launches, copy trading, bots and its own GT token with fee discounts.
Strong sides: 24 USDT withdrawal networks, more than anyone, 2000 spot pairs, running since 2013.
What Kraken gives you
Early listings are not the only argument; Kraken answers with its own: The oldest venue we cover, running since 2011 under US regulation. Its distinction is real money: around seven hundred dollar pairs and five hundred and forty-six euro pairs, more than anyone here. There is spot, perpetual futures with hourly funding, staking and institutional services. Kraken is how we compute the live dollar rate in our stablecoin section.
Strong sides: 546 euro pairs and around seven hundred dollar ones, age and regulation, hourly funding.
What decides it
- Jurisdiction. Gate sits in Panama, Kraken in San Francisco, USA. It shapes both the checks you pass and what the venue has to disclose.
- Native token. GT on Gate cuts fees and opens launches; Kraken has no such lever.
- Strengths side by side. Gate: 24 USDT withdrawal networks, more than anyone, 2000 spot pairs, running since 2013; Kraken: 546 euro pairs and around seven hundred dollar ones, age and regulation, hourly funding.
- Which job. Gate is for anyone who values freedom of choice when moving coins between chains, while Kraken is for settling in real dollars and euro rather than stablecoins.
- Worth remembering. Gate: the interface is dense with sections: finding the right one takes a while. Kraken: entry-level fees run higher than neighbours — it pays off at larger volumes.
Which one fits you
Gate — for anyone who values freedom of choice when moving coins between chains.
Kraken — for settling in real dollars and euro rather than stablecoins.
What people ask most
Gate: Are there many coins? One of the widest listings on the market, comparable to MEXC. As there, breadth calls for caution: check a pair's volume before trading.
Gate: What is proof of reserves? A Merkle-tree procedure letting you verify your balance is counted in the exchange's liabilities and those liabilities are covered by assets. It does not reveal off-balance-sheet obligations.
Kraken: Why does Kraken show so few pairs in your spot arbitrage? Because we take only USDT pairs, and Kraken has fewer than fifty: nearly everything is quoted in real dollars. Mixing USD pairs with other venues’ USDT pairs would present USDT’s deviation as arbitrage.
Kraken: Why check the network before sending? Kraken does not support every network for every coin, and a deposit sent on an unsupported network is usually unrecoverable. The supported list is in its funding help pages.
Kraken: How do I fund an account if there is no P2P? Only by bank transfer or crypto from another wallet. Limits depend on your country and verification level, and the exchange publishes them on a page of its own — linked above.
Both at once
Most people end up keeping both: one for daily trades, the other for what the first one lacks. Fiat comes in through the regulated venue, while a small sum sits on the early-listing one for new coins: the money arrives clean and the tickers do not pass you by.
Live numbers
Everything in the table above is recomputed together with the rest of the site — pairs, contracts, P2P, networks and the withdrawal fee. Gate and Kraken can be compared on facts rather than promises.
What the numbers say
The spot lists differ by 46.3× — 2,082 USDT pairs on Gate, 45 on the other side. Derivatives go to Gate: 1,022 perpetuals against 282. Of the two, only Gate publishes a USDT withdrawal price: 0.0500, chain ARBITRUM. Of the pair, only Gate feeds our P2P scanner, 72 currencies.
Snapshot from 30 September 2026; on the page the figures refresh on every visit.
Gate
Kraken