eToro vs Kraken

Introduction

When looking to kick-start your trading journey in flying colors, you need to pair it with a trading platform that you will feel comfortable using and one that adapts to your investing needs. If your option is down to eToro and Kraken and would want to compare the strengths and weaknesses of the two, here is a handful guide to help you determine which among the two: eToro or Kraken, that best meets your trading requirements.

eToro is a social trading app and a brokerage that allow its users to trade on a several financial assets—including CFD trading—while learning and copying trading strategies from seasoned traders through its Copy Trade feature. eToro users can choose from a wide range of financial instruments such as currencies, stocks, currency pairs, forex, commodities, indices and even cryptocurrencies, to trade on the platform.

Kraken, on the other hand, is a cryptocurrency exchange that provides a trading platform for both cryptocurrency and fiat currencies. Unlike eToro, it only trades on various kinds of cryptocurrencies.

Wondering if you can test out eToro’s platform?

Absolutely yes, you can! eToro's demo account that comes with a virtual money of $100,000 gives users the chance to do mock trades in virtual mode without risking real money. Keep in mind that using this feature of eToro will not only provide you ample time to practice your trading skills, you also get to familiarize yourself with the platform and its many features. Remember that you still need to open an account in order to access the virtual portfolio. Click on the button below to open an account now in eToro.

78% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Comparison

To start off, here's a quick comparison showing the main features and highlights of eToro and Kraken. All information used here are based on the latest news and updates from both trading platforms.

Account Types

When it comes to account types, eToro offers flexible classifications for its clients. Retail accounts are grouped into tiered memberships called the eToro Club which features exclusive offerings, perks and privileges depending on the size of the client's equity holdings.

Here are eToro's membership categories:

• Silver
• Gold
• Platinum
• Platinum​+
• Diamond

Kraken offers three account types:

• Starter
• Intermediate
• Pro

The highest-tiered account is the Kraken Pro account which offers personalized withdrawal and deposit limits, access to Kraken's over the counter trading desk, higher API limits and higher margin allowance limits.

Demo Account

While Kraken does not offer demo accounts with virtual money or cryptocurrency for practice use, users can however, sign up for a demo account to trade for Kraken futures.

eToro meanwhile, offers a demo account that comes with a virtual money of $100,000 for clients to use for practicing mock trades and to also get a feel of using the whole trading platform without risking real money at first.

If you're interested in testing the eToro demo account, then you can simply click the button below to get started. Keep in mind that you will be required to open an account in order to utilize their virtual portfolio. There's no need to immediately make a deposit if you’re not ready yet. You can easily fund your account when you're ready to go for live trading.

78% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Registration

Both eToro and Kraken only require a username, password and email for a user to register and create an account. However, one would need to make a minimum deposit first before completing the registration and process of creating an account.

Minimum Deposit

For eToro, the minimum deposit ranges from $10-$1,000 depending on the country you are in. For example, $10 is the minimum requirement for traders who are based in the UK and USA but it's $50 for residents of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Vatican City and Vietnam.

While on Kraken, the minimum deposit would depend on your chosen cryptocurrency. Here are some of them:

• Bitcoin: 0.0001 BTC
• Bitcoin Cash: 0.0006 BCH
• Cardano: 5 ADA
• Dogecoin: 0 DOGE
• Ethereum: 0.05 ETH
• Ripple: 0 XRP
• Stellar Lumens: 0 XLM

Platforms

Both eToro and Kraken can be used in the two leading platforms of desktop computers via a browser and smartphones operating on both the iOS and Android systems.

Assets

Here's the deal:
If you're a trader looking to diversify your portfolio, then you will find eToro as the more advantageous trading platform than the crypto-centric Kraken trading platform.

Since eToro is an online brokerage trading platform, it gives its users access to a diverse range of financial asset options such as stocks, crypto, indices, ETFs, commodities, and forex.

Kraken meanwhile, is purely a cryptocurrency exchange supporting more than 70 cryptos (as compared to eToro's 20+) and in the upwards of 8,000 crypto markets.

Leverage

Kraken only allows Leverage on a few of its financial instruments and it varies from 1:2 to 1:5—which seems low for anyone accustomed to forex investing. Kraken also imposes a leveraged trading fee from 0.01% - 0.02% depending on the crypto instrument and is levied every four hours.

Leverage on eToro is in line with ESMA regulations providing a maximum of 1:30. This generally accepted range of leverage offered by eToro make it more appealing to clients who uses the strategy of leverage as a means to open large investments in exchange of a smaller amount of owned money.

And please remember: While leverage gives investors more chances of earning more than their initial investment, it also comes with a risk of "the higher the leverage, the higher is the risk of losing money".

Customer Service

You can contact the eToro customer service department via email or chat. While the lack of phone support may be inconvenient for some, it also makes things more convenient as you can easily go online to chat or send an email instead.

eToro has some other customer support options for those looking for additional help. These include submitting an online ticket or utilizing their Help Center - which can help you with everything eToro-related.

On the other hand, Kraken provides three ways to contact their customer service department. They are email, phone, and live chat.

Conclusion

Kraken comes with a solid reputation as a trusted cryptocurrency exchange and its features, performance and feedback from its users fully back up that claim.

For cryptocurrency investors and traders, Kraken brings in a lot of Pros such as high Bitcoin to EUR liquidity, a safe platform with no known hacks yet, industry-accepted commissions and a great charting by TradingView.

While Kraken supports more cryptocurrencies and crypto currency markets then eToro, more traders are opting to choose eToro because it provides access to more financial assets that allow traders to diversify their portfolios and thereby avoid great risk in their trading career.

Many traders are loving the advanced yet user-friendly interface of eToro plus the copy trading feature that provide instant avenue for newbie traders to learn from the more experienced ones. In terms of crypto-trading, there's also an ample lot of cryptos to trade in eToro.

Simply put: If your interest remains solely in trading cryptocurrencies, then you'll have a good time using the Kraken trading app, but if you are a trader looking to diversify your investments, then eToro sounds like the perfect trading app for you.