Kraken is a core US-accessible venue whose zero maker fee at volume tiers makes it the strongest book for resting (maker) execution. This page explains Kraken's role in best execution for a large crypto order: its fee model, its depth, and where it sits when EnsoTrade routes a buy or sell across venues.
| Attribute | Kraken |
|---|---|
| Access class | US-accessible (venue_class=us_spot) |
| Fee model | Maker fees fall to zero at higher volume tiers while the taker fee stays positive — so resting an order, rather than crossing, is where the saving is. |
| Depth / role in a route | Good USD depth; thinner than Coinbase at the very top, so size past a few million benefits from routing across venues. |
| Rest vs cross | Zero maker fee makes resting the cheaper path here for patient size. |
No single venue is cheapest for every size. The cheapest venue for the first $1M of a BTC clip is often not the cheapest for the next $10M, because each venue's book thins as you take it. EnsoTrade's market-impact and routing logic splits the order across venues like Kraken so that each marginal piece buys where it is cheapest, net of fees — and prices it before you trade. For the live cost on Kraken at your size, the ROUTE endpoint returns the number.
EnsoTrade prices a large order against live order books across venues — which venues to use, what size each piece should be, and whether to rest an order or cross the spread. It is independent measurement, not execution: your own desk or execution partner keeps placing the orders on its own accounts, and we never touch custody, keys or funds. Before a window we price it at your real clip size on the venues you can use; after a window we score the fill with full workings. We quote no price or saving until you give your real clip size and fee stack — then the number is yours to check.
Price an order before you trade and score the fill after, on live multi-venue order books. We never touch custody, keys or orders — the independence is the point.
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