Kraken is an online cryptocurrency exchange offering a wide array of investment options for individuals and institutions in close to 200 countries around the world. The investment app supports close to 60 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple.

Kraken also provides a variety of services for institutions, businesses, and high-net-worth individuals. These include account management, one-on-one consultations services, OTC trading, and expert market insights. Keep reading to see if Kraken is right for you.

    Ways to invest with Kraken

Kraken currently offers more than 50 crypto assets, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. You'll mainly have five investment options at Kraken: crypto assets, fiat assets, futures trading, margin trading, and over-the-counter (OTC) trading.

Unlike cryptocurrencies, Fiat currencies are physical assets that are controlled by a central financial institution and backed by governments. Kraken supports seven: USD, EUR, CAD, AUD, GBP, CHF, and JPY. Deposit fees and minimums vary for each currency, though. You can learn more here.

Kraken also offers futures, with both a web platform and two mobile apps specifically dedicated to futures traders. (Futures are legal contracts that give you, the investor, the right to buy or sell a security at a certain price on a forthcoming date.) Its futures services also let you borrow up to 50 times your balance for trading.

With Kraken's margin trading options, you can leverage, or borrow, up to five times your account balance to place more trades (the exchange currently allows investors to borrow up to $500,000) on up to 16 different assets. Kraken says its margin services also include access to advanced order options and an intuitive trading platform.

Kraken says its OTC trading services are best for institutions and high-net-worth individuals (investors with at least $1 million) who need to place larger orders that might be too disruptive for the open market/Kraken exchange.

This account option additionally includes expert market insights, full support for all Kraken exchange-listed crypto assets and fiat currencies, one-on-one expert consultation services, and 24/7 global support. And Kraken offers another option for advanced traders: An account management program that gives you one-on-one support from a Kraken account manager.

Finally, the exchange's offerings include a websockets API that provides real-time market alerts, staking rewards (staking allows investors to earn rewards by locking a portion of their assets away over a certain period of time), public key support, and offline cold storage for your crypto assets. (Kraken also says it's not a personal wallet service, so it's probably best to consider other storage wallets).

    Is Kraken trustworthy?

Kraken currently has an F rating with the Better Business Bureau. The BBB evaluates companies with a grade range of A+ to F, so this indicates that Kraken has underperformed in some aspect of its customer support services.

The bureau cites two reasons for Kraken's rating: (1) Kraken failed to respond to 19 complaints filed against it, and (2) customers filed 20 complaints against the business. However, the BBB also says its ratings don't ensure a company will be reliable or perform well, so it's important to conduct your own research in addition to the bureau's findings.

Kraken has closed nine complaints in the last 12 months, according to BBB data.