MEXC vs Kraken Futures

MEXC vs Kraken Futures: which to use

MEXC vs Kraken Futures is two centralized exchanges with an order book each, so the choice rests on fees, markets, leverage and where you live. MEXC charges 1 bp maker and 4 bp taker, lists 1202 perp markets and offers up to 1000x. Kraken Futures charges 2 bp maker and 5 bp taker, lists 278 markets, offers up to 100x and pays funding every hour on every market. Both require KYC, and Kraken Futures is closed to several regions. Pick MEXC for lower fees, more markets and higher leverage. Pick Kraken Futures for uniform hourly funding.

How each exchange is built

MEXC is a centralized exchange (CEX): you open an account with the company, and the account holds your funds. Kraken Futures is also a CEX with the same custody model. Both match orders on a central limit order book, so you trade against other users' resting orders.

What each exchange charges

MEXC's base tier is 1 bp maker and 4 bp taker. We read these from MEXC's API, and MEXC has no fee page to link. Kraken Futures' base tier is 2 bp maker and 5 bp taker, per Kraken's fee schedule.

A market order pays the taker fee on entry and again on exit. That is 8 bp per round trip on MEXC and 10 bp on Kraken Futures. A limit order that rests on the book pays the maker fee instead: 1 bp on MEXC and 2 bp on Kraken Futures.

The fee is only part of the cost of a market order. Slippage is the price you move by eating through the order book, and it grows with size. The cost table above adds it to the fees at each size from $1k to $5M. For the same comparison across other venues, see every exchange's trading cost.

How many markets, how much leverage, how often funding is paid

As of 1 October 2026 MEXC lists 1202 active perps, 93 of them stocks, commodities, FX or other real-world assets. Kraken Futures lists 278, 19 of them real-world assets. If you want a long tail of coins or tokenized stocks and commodities on one account, MEXC has the larger list.

MEXC offers up to 1000x on its highest-leverage market, and Kraken Futures up to 100x. Most markets on both allow less, so check the limit on the market you plan to trade.

Funding is the periodic payment between longs and shorts, and a positive rate means longs pay shorts. Kraken Futures pays it every hour on every market. MEXC pays every 1 hour, 4 hours, 8 hours or 24 hours depending on the market. An hourly market settles 24 times a day and a 24-hour market once, so the interval changes how fast a position accrues or earns funding. Check a market's interval before you hold it. The list further down this page shows the markets both exchanges have, with each one's funding rate and the spread between them.

Who can open an account

Both exchanges require KYC. MEXC has required KYC before trading since February 2026, and unverified accounts see market data only. Kraken Futures requires full verification. It is closed to the US (which has a separate US product), Canada and retail UK clients, and in Australia it is open to wholesale clients only.

Tokens

MEXC's token is $MX.

Reading the numbers on this page

Both exchanges publish open interest as one side of open positions, so the open interest row and chart above compare like with like on this point. Neither exchange publishes TVL, as is usual for a centralized exchange, so the TVL row and chart have no figure for either.

Volume, depth, funding and trading cost are live and refresh every minute. Read them in the Head to head table rather than from any text here. For the BTC listings across exchanges, see the BTC page.

Which one fits you

• Pick MEXC if you trade with market orders: 4 bp taker against 5 bp.
• Pick MEXC if you rest limit orders: 1 bp maker against 2 bp.
• Pick MEXC if you want a wider list: 1202 perps against 278, with 93 real-world asset markets against 19.
• Pick MEXC if you need more than 100x, since it offers up to 1000x on its highest-leverage market.
• Pick Kraken Futures if you want funding on a fixed hourly schedule on every market.
• Pick Kraken Futures if you hold positions where a single funding interval across all markets makes costs easier to predict.