Take Kraken, which has a genuinely strong reputation for cheap trading. Google's AI Overview, NerdWallet, Investopedia and Yahoo Finance all describe it as having low maker-taker fees. Not one of them prints the entry rate next to the claim.
Kraken's published schedule puts the entry tier at 0.40% maker and 0.80% taker. The 0.00% maker rate that earns the reputation begins at 500 million dollars of thirty-day volume.
Both descriptions are accurate. Only one of them applies to somebody reading a review before opening their first account.
| Tier | Maker | Taker |
|---|---|---|
| Entry tier, $0+ volume | 0.40% | 0.80% |
| Top tier, $500M+ volume | 0.00% | 0.05% |
Source: Kraken published fee schedule, checked August 16, 2026.
This is not a Kraken problem
We are using Kraken because we happened to check its schedule carefully, and because it is a reputable exchange rather than a bad actor. The pattern is industry-wide.
Volume-tiered pricing is standard. Quoting the tier almost nobody reaches is also standard. So is presenting a maker rate as though it were the rate, when most retail orders are taker orders.
Add the spread inside a simple buy button, which is a genuine cost that never appears as a fee, and the number a first-time buyer actually pays can be several times the figure they read.
Four questions that cut through it
Ask these of any platform, including ones we review well. The answers are all published, and they take about two minutes to find.
- 1
Which tier is that rate?
A headline rate is almost always the top tier. Ask what the rate is at zero volume, because that is the one you will pay.
- 2
Maker or taker?
Taker fees are routinely double maker fees. A quoted "0.40%" that is actually the maker rate means 0.80% for anyone hitting an existing order.
- 3
Is there a spread on top?
Simple buy flows bury a margin inside the quoted price. It is a real cost that never appears as a fee line.
- 4
What does it cost to get money out?
Deposit and withdrawal costs sit outside trading fees and are frequently the largest single charge on a small account.
What we do about it
Every review we publish prints the entry tier, not the headline rate, and carries the date the figure was checked. Where we could not confirm something at a primary source, we list it rather than repeating it confidently.
None of that makes us cleverer than the publications we are describing. It is just the version of a fee section that would have been useful to us.