How to buy Ethereum on Kraken: app or Kraken Pro, step by step

To buy Ethereum on Kraken in the EU, you sign up, verify your identity, deposit euros by free SEPA transfer and buy ETH either in the Kraken app or on Kraken Pro. Kraken serves EU residents through Payward Europe Solutions Limited, licensed under MiCA by the Central Bank of Ireland. Kraken Pro is the cheaper route: a €1,000 limit order costs €4.00, against €10.00 plus a spread in the app.

We checked Kraken’s fee schedule, funding and staking pages, withdrawal fee table and public API on 23 October 2026. We haven’t bought ETH on Kraken ourselves, so the steps describe what to do rather than exact button names. Crypto is volatile, and you can lose all the money you put in.

Can you buy Ethereum (ETH) on Kraken in the EU?

Yes. Kraken is authorised under MiCA, and it serves the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Ireland and the rest of the EEA. The licence sits with Payward Europe Solutions Limited, authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland on 25 June 2025, while a second company, Payward Global Solutions Limited, is authorised to operate the trading platform.

Ethereum trades in euros on Kraken: its public API listed the ETH/EUR pair as online on 23 October 2026, with a minimum order of 0.002 ETH. Since 1 July 2026 only MiCA-licensed firms may offer crypto services in the EU, and ESMA’s register lists Kraken among them.

A licence means supervision, not insurance. Crypto on any exchange isn’t covered by the €100,000 deposit guarantee or by investor compensation schemes.

What you need before you start

To buy ETH on Kraken you need a government-issued ID, a phone for two-factor authentication, a bank account in your own name for SEPA, and 20 to 30 minutes. Your verification level decides your deposit and withdrawal limits, so higher limits need more checks.

How to buy Ethereum on Kraken, step by step

Buying Ethereum on Kraken takes six steps, from opening an account to moving your ETH to a wallet you control. Step 5 is where you choose between the app and Kraken Pro.

If you want to buy ETH regularly, the Kraken app also offers recurring buys at the same 1% fee as a direct buy.

Kraken app or Kraken Pro: how to buy ETH for less

Kraken Pro is the cheaper way to buy ETH on Kraken, and the saving is large on a €1,000 buy. The standard app charges 1% on direct and recurring buys and 1.5% on custom orders, plus a variable spread; Kraken Pro charges a separate maker or taker fee instead.

	Kraken app	Kraken Pro
Fee on a direct buy	1% plus a spread	Not applicable
Market order (taker)	Not applicable	0.80%
Limit order that waits in the book (maker)	Not applicable	0.40%
Best for	A few taps, small buys	Anyone placing limit orders

Since July 2026 the Kraken Pro entry tier has been 0.40% maker and 0.80% taker, up from 0.25% and 0.40%. Fees fall as your 30-day volume grows. A maker order is a limit order that waits in the order book until someone trades against it; a taker order fills straight away.

The Kraken Pro app takes some getting used to, with charts and more order types, but placing a limit order on ETH/EUR is enough to halve the cost compared with a market order. Kraken+ members pay no app trading fee on up to $10,000 a month, but the spread still applies.

How much does it cost to buy Ethereum on Kraken?

Buying ETH on Kraken after a free SEPA deposit costs €0.40 to €1.00 on €100, and €4.00 to €10.00 on €1,000, depending on how you buy, plus a spread in the app. These are the entry-tier fees we checked:

Cost	€100 buy	€1,000 buy
SEPA deposit	€0.00	€0.00
Kraken app, direct buy (1%)	€1.00 plus spread	€10.00 plus spread
Kraken Pro, market order (0.80%)	€0.80	€8.00
Kraken Pro, limit order (0.40%)	€0.40	€4.00
Card purchase	Not published	Not published
ETH withdrawal, Ethereum network	0.00015 ETH	0.00015 ETH
SEPA withdrawal if you sell later	€1.00	€1.00

So €100 on Kraken Pro with a limit order buys about €99.60 of ETH. The ETH withdrawal fee is fixed in ETH, so its euro value moves with the price: purely as an illustration, at €2,000 per ETH it would be €0.30. For comparison, Bybit EU charges a flat 0.25% (€2.50 on €1,000) and Coinbase Advanced 0.60% to 1.20%. Our Kraken fees page covers the full schedule.

ETH staking on Kraken: lock-ups, commission and risks

You can stake ETH on Kraken to earn rewards, but read the terms first. Kraken’s Ethereum staking page, in the Dutch-language version we checked on 23 October 2026, lists ETH as bonded staking on Kraken Pro and the desktop site, with a bonded time shown as six days and weekly payouts.

• Commission: Kraken shows reward rates before its commission, without stating the commission on that page, and the rates are subject to change.
• Lock-up: Kraken says bonded staking comes with a lock-up period. A Kraken support article on staking ETH says there is no bonding period, so the two pages don’t agree; check the terms before you commit.
• Flexible staking: for coins offered with flexible staking, Kraken stakes only part of your assets, and you can unstake at any time.
• Geography: Kraken says geographic restrictions apply.

Kraken lists the risks itself: no assurance of rewards, potential losses from slashing or hacks, and falls in the value of staked assets. On the Ethereum network itself, staked ETH can be withdrawn since the Shanghai/Capella upgrade of 12 April 2023, but exits go through a queue whose length depends on how many validators are leaving.

Where to keep your ETH after buying

You can keep ETH on your Kraken account or move it to a wallet you control. For larger, long-term holdings, a wallet of your own removes the exchange risk, but you become responsible for your recovery phrase.

Kraken publishes a Merkle-tree proof of reserves checked by an independent accountant, most recently for 30 June 2026. That shows it held clients’ assets on that date; it isn’t insurance.

• A software wallet on your phone, such as the Kraken Wallet app, which Kraken presents as self-custody with seed-phrase wallets whose keys you control. It is convenient, but online.
• A hardware wallet keeps the keys offline and suits larger amounts.

Our glossary entry on self-custody explains the trade-offs, and wallet types compares the options. EU rules require exchanges to pass on sender and receiver details with crypto transfers; if you send more than €1,000 to your own wallet, Kraken must check that the wallet belongs to you, for example with a signed message or a small test transaction.

Common mistakes when buying ETH on Kraken

The most common mistakes on Kraken are about cost and transfers, and all of them are easy to avoid:

1. Buying in the app out of habit. On €1,000, a Kraken Pro limit order saves at least €6.00 compared with a direct buy in the app.
2. Using market orders on Kraken Pro. A taker order costs twice as much as a maker order.
3. Funding from someone else’s bank account. The names must match, or the deposit won’t go through.
4. Choosing the wrong network. Kraken offers ETH withdrawals on several networks; pick the one your wallet supports and send a test amount first.
5. Wandering into futures. Kraken also offers crypto futures to EU clients who pass an appropriateness test. Most retail traders who use leverage lose money.
6. Staking money you may need soon. A lock-up can stop you from selling when you want to.

Taxes on ETH in the Netherlands and Germany

For investors in the Netherlands, ETH counts towards your box 3 assets: for 2026 the tax is based on a fixed notional return of 6.00% on what you hold on 1 January, taxed at 36% above an allowance of €59,357 per person. In Germany, gains on crypto held for more than one year are currently tax-free under the private-sale rules; plans to change this from 2027 have been reported but were not law on 23 October 2026.

Alternatives to Kraken for buying ETH

Two other MiCA-licensed exchanges list ETH in euros, one cheaper and one simpler:

• Bybit EU: a flat 0.25% spot fee, €2.50 on €1,000, but with a 2025 hack in the group’s history. See how to buy Ethereum on Bybit.
• Coinbase: a simple app and a Nasdaq-listed company, but 0.60% to 1.20% on Coinbase Advanced. See how to buy Ethereum on Coinbase, or compare both exchanges in Coinbase vs Kraken.

The bottom line

Kraken is a licensed, well-rounded place to buy Ethereum in the EU, with free SEPA deposits and a published proof of reserves. Use Kraken Pro with limit orders and the cost on €1,000 drops to €4.00; read the staking terms carefully before you lock anything up. Our Kraken review has the full verdict.