In our busy day-to-day lives, we want stuff fast.

Whether it's receiving packages in the mail, commuting to the office or flying abroad — speed is a fundamental requirement that we've come to expect.

Gone are the days of visiting video rental stores to watch movies, or queuing to buy clothes at physical stores. Even manually-operating car windows seem like a distant memory for many.

And yet, when it comes to something as important as sending and receiving money, we still seem to be stuck in the dark ages.

Crypto is here to change that.

Kraken let's you access the ultra-fast world of cryptocurrency. See what crypto can be by signing up for your Kraken account today — or keep reading to learn more.

Life moves fast — your money should keep up.

Crypto allows you to transfer value to others far quicker than any other payment method currently available.

In an age where speed and efficiency are paramount, the ability to quickly and cost-effectively transfer value across borders is a pivotal advantage.

Instant, low-cost crypto transactions not only showcase what modern technology can achieve — they also present a compelling alternative to the traditional financial system's inefficiencies.

In an age of self-landing rocket ships and artificial intelligence, it's hard to understand how the technology powering the traditional banking system has largely remained unchanged for so many years.

International payments still take (on average) between one to five working days to reach their intended destinations, excluding weekends and national holidays.

Not to mention, many of these services contain significant hidden costs, even those advertised as "0% commission." Undisclosed exchange rate fees vary between 0.7-7%, and flat wire transfer fees can range from $25-$65 per transaction.

Cryptocurrencies represent the next, innovative frontier in electronic currency technology, and they are already beginning to revolutionize the way we transfer value globally.

Instead of relying on a network of slow and expensive banks to handle all payments — a globally distributed network of volunteers collectively manages all cryptocurrency transactions. These volunteers use their own computers to perform important jobs like recording and verifying new transaction information. This system means users can send value via cryptocurrencies anywhere in the world within a matter of minutes, for comparatively miniscule fees.

No banks are involved in the process whatsoever. You can think of it like sending money via email through a computer network managed by ordinary people.

Venmo, PayPal and Cash App offer similar types of peer-to-peer payment services. However, these platforms still have the power to censor individual accounts, and often impose limits on where you can send money and how much you can send.

Cryptocurrency payments are censorship-free, borderless and limitless.

Need more proof?

In September 2021, someone moved over $2 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) and paid just $0.49 in fees.

This wasn't a one-off exception either. One year earlier, another wallet address moved over $1 billion in BTC and paid $4 in fees.

Unlike traditional finance, the technology powering cryptocurrencies is constantly evolving. Developers around the world have pioneered secondary scaling solutions that make certain cryptocurrencies operate even faster than before.

The Lightning Network is one example, and allows people to theoretically transact up to one million Bitcoin (BTC) transactions per second, with a base fee of less than $0.00019.

These figures make such digital asset payments more than 1,000x cheaper than Visa and Mastercard transactions, and exponentially faster than international bank transfers.

Traditional payments

• International payments take on average between one to five working days to process.
• Visa claims it can theoretically process up to 24,000 transactions per second (though settlement can take up to a few days).
• In 2022, Fedwire processed an average of 9 transactions per second.
• FedNow's service claims to process and settle transactions instantly and costs around $0.045 per credit transaction — but only domestic payments are currently supported.

Crypto payments

• Popular cryptocurrencies like Cosmos and XRP can settle international transactions within 1-5 seconds.
• Solana is an example of a cryptocurrency network that can theoretically handle up to 65,000 transactions per second, with instant settlement.
• Layer 2 scaling solutions like The Lightning Network and Arbitrum boost the efficiency of certain cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. These projects allow Bitcoin and Ethereum to process thousands of more transactions per second, with near-zero fees.

Now that you have learned what makes crypto quick, are you ready to take the next step in your crypto journey?

Kraken lets you buy, sell and trade the leading cryptocurrencies that are reshaping the financial landscape.

Sign up for your Kraken account today to get started in the ultra-fast world of cryptocurrency.