Who Kraken is
Kraken is a crypto exchange founded in 2011, with spot and derivatives markets for individuals and institutions. For institutions it adds an OTC desk for negotiated block trades, custody and a prime brokerage service.
Individual traders, trading firms and other platforms use it, and its Embed APIs let companies offer Kraken's trading inside their own products. Developers reach its spot markets over REST, WebSocket and FIX, which is why it is one of the providers our FX module and matching engine connect to.
What it does in your platform
FX
Covers the crypto side of conversions. The module reads Kraken's spot order books next to your other sources and, once a customer's conversion has booked in your ledger, covers it on Kraken in the background.
Matching engine
Backs quieter pairs with Kraken's depth. The engine follows Kraken's order book and shows that depth on your pair, within the limits you set, so customers have real liquidity to trade against from the first day.
How the connection works
The connectors use Kraken's spot APIs: the WebSocket v2 book channel for order books, and REST or FIX 4.4 for orders. Kraken's API keys and FIX credentials stay in your platform's secrets.
The book is followed
The engine subscribes to Kraken's book channel and keeps a local copy, checked against the checksums Kraken sends so a missed update is caught.
Depth backs your pair
Within the limits you set, that depth stands behind your pair's order book, next to your own market makers' orders.
A customer trades
The order matches in your engine, and the fill is booked to your ledger as it happens.
The fill is covered
The engine sends the offsetting order to Kraken over REST or FIX, with its own client order ID so each one can be traced.
Kraken confirms
Kraken's executions channel or a FIX execution report confirms the fill, and the engine matches it to the customer's trade. Both show in the admin backoffice.
Next to other venues
Kraken sits in two groups: crypto liquidity in the FX module, with B2C2, Wintermute, Cumberland and Coinbase Prime, and external liquidity in the matching engine, with Binance, OKX, Coinbase Prime, B2C2 and Wintermute. In the FX module, quotes are compared, the best executes, and quoting goes on if one source stalls.
In the engine, your own market makers connect through its FIX and WebSocket APIs and quote next to the depth Kraken brings. Adding another venue, or moving away from Kraken later, does not change your apps or your traders' integrations.
When Kraken fits best
A strong fit when
- You want an established exchange's order books behind your rates and your quieter pairs.
- Your team works in FIX 4.4, which Kraken offers for spot trading and market data.
- You may later want Kraken's OTC desk, custody or prime services from the same relationship.
Also worth a look
- Coinbase Prime, when you want one account routing across several venues.
- A liquidity provider such as B2C2 or Wintermute, when you would rather trade with one counterparty than on an order book.
How we get you live
The contract
We help you get your Kraken account and contract in place, with the Kraken entity and services that fit where you operate.
The pairs
We set up with you the pairs Kraken backs in each module, your margins on conversions, and the limits on the depth shown in each order book.
The keys
Kraken's API keys and FIX credentials go into your platform's secrets and nowhere else, with only the permissions the connectors need.
A full test run
Orders run through Kraken's UAT environment for FIX before go-live, and the order book connection is checked against live data with no orders sent.
