Kraken’s Bitcoin Trading API allows you to programmatically place orders, check balances, and manage BTC trades on Kraken. It uses HTTP requests with signed authentication to interact securely with your Kraken account.
Log in to your Kraken account, go to Security > API, then click Add Key. Configure the permissions needed for your use case, name the key, and securely store the generated API Key and Private Key.
Enable only the permissions required for your activities. For trading Bitcoin, enable Funds > Query and Trade. Avoid enabling Withdraw unless absolutely necessary for your use case.
You can place orders to buy, sell or trade cryptocurrencies and equities 24/7 on Kraken.
If you submit an equities order outside of market hours, it will be queued and executed at the start of the next trading session.
When securing your API keys, it’s important to never share your API keys publicly, store keys in a secure environment (e.g., encrypted vault), enable IP whitelisting if available, use keys with minimum required permissions and rotate keys periodically.
No, Kraken’s exchange API is free to use. However, standard trading fees apply when executing orders via the API, just as with manual trading.
Yes. Kraken enforces rate limits to ensure system stability. The default limit is one call per second, with higher limits for certain endpoints. Refer to Kraken’s API documentation for detailed rate limit tiers.
Yes. Use the Public OHLC endpoint to retrieve historical price and trading data for Bitcoin. You can specify the asset pair, time interval, and starting timestamp.
No. A blockchain API provides data directly from a blockchain (e.g., address balances, block info), while an exchange API interacts with a platform like Kraken to trade or access account data.
Kraken’s trade API is available in most countries. However, availability may be restricted in jurisdictions subject to sanctions or local regulations. Check Kraken’s supported regions for the latest details.
