Binance vs Kraken Futures

Binance or Kraken Futures: which to use

Binance vs Kraken Futures is two centralized exchanges with the same base fees, 2 bp maker and 5 bp taker, so the choice rests on other things. Binance lists 783 perp markets, 213 of them real-world assets, and goes up to 150x. Kraken Futures lists 278, 19 of them real-world assets, goes up to 100x and pays funding every hour on every market. Binance also charges regular users 0 maker and 0.04% (4 bp) taker on its stock and commodity perps. Pick Binance for market breadth and leverage. Pick Kraken Futures for a single hourly funding schedule.

How each exchange is built

Binance is a centralized exchange (CEX): you open an account with the company, and the account holds your funds. Kraken Futures works the same way. Both match orders on a central limit order book, so you trade against resting orders from other traders on the book.

Fees and what they mean

Binance's base tier is 2 bp maker and 5 bp taker, per Binance's fee page. Kraken Futures' base tier is the same, 2 bp maker and 5 bp taker, per Kraken's fee schedule. One basis point (bp) is 0.01% of the position.

Binance has a second rate. Its stock and commodity perps (TradFi perps) charge regular users 0 maker and 0.04% (4 bp) taker, "until further notice" (Binance announcement, checked 29 September 2026).

A market order pays the taker fee to open and again to close, so a round trip is 10 bp on either exchange's base tier. A limit order that rests on the book pays the maker fee, 2 bp on both. The fee is only part of the cost. Slippage, the price you move by eating through the order book, grows with size. The cost table above adds the fee twice and the measured slippage at each size from $1k to $5M, and every exchange's execution cost sits on one page.

Markets, leverage and funding

As of 1 October 2026, Binance lists 783 active perps, 213 of them stocks, commodities, FX or other real-world assets. Kraken Futures lists 278, of which 19 are real-world assets. If you want stocks and commodities next to crypto, Binance has more of them to choose from.

Binance allows up to 150x on its highest-leverage market and Kraken Futures up to 100x. Most markets on both allow less. A Binance futures account under 30 days old is capped at 20x.

Funding is the periodic payment between longs and shorts. A positive rate means longs pay shorts. Kraken Futures pays it every hour on every market. Binance pays every 1 hour, 4 hours or 8 hours depending on the market. An hourly market settles 24 times a day and an 8-hour market three times, so a position's funding accrues in smaller, more frequent steps on an hourly schedule. On Binance, check a market's interval before you hold it. The list further down this page shows the markets both exchanges have and each one's funding rate.

Who can use them

Both exchanges require KYC. Binance requires verified KYC to deposit or trade. Kraken Futures requires full verification, and it is closed to the US (which has a separate US product), Canada and retail UK clients. In Australia it is open to wholesale clients only. Check the exchange's terms for your own country before you register.

Tokens

Binance's token is $BNB.

Reading the numbers on this page

Both exchanges publish open interest as one side of open positions. The open interest row and chart above are therefore a like-for-like comparison of size, which is not always the case between exchanges. Some exchanges publish longs plus shorts, about twice a one-side count.

Neither exchange publishes TVL, as is usual for a centralized exchange. The TVL row and chart on this page have no figure for either. Volume, open interest and trading cost change every minute, so read them in the Head to head table and the charts above. The BTC page lists funding, price, open interest and liquidity for every exchange that lists BTC.

Which one fits you

• Pick Binance if you want more markets: 783 against 278 on Kraken Futures.
• Pick Binance if you trade stocks, commodities, FX or other real-world assets: 213 markets against 19.
• Pick Binance if you need more than 100x: it goes up to 150x, once your futures account is past its first 30 days.
• Pick Binance if you trade its TradFi perps as a regular user: 0 maker and 0.04% (4 bp) taker, against 5 bp taker at the base tier.
• Pick Kraken Futures if you want one funding schedule: every market pays every hour.
• Pick Kraken Futures if you trade crypto perps with a 100x ceiling and want the same 2 bp maker and 5 bp taker base tier as Binance.