Consumer complaint received 2025-03-27 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Virtual currency
Issue: Confusing or missing disclosures — 
Company: Payward Ventures Inc. dba Kraken
State: OR

Complaint narrative:
I am an incoming XXXX PhD student with experience as a technology consultant. 

I am submitting a complaint regarding the cryptocurrency exchange XXXX XXXX XXXX service. Based on my research, XXXX appears to charge inflated and poorly disclosed fees that XXXX mislead consumers. 

Below are my findings ; the key takeaway is that XXXX 's card processing fees and spread fees are far greater than what a reasonable consumer would expect, and they are not transparently disclosed. 

1. Exorbitant Fee Structure - Kraken charges a total fee of at least 6.5 % on its Instant Buy/Sell transactions.

- This includes a 5 % card processing fee and a spread fee of at least 1.5 % embedded in the quoted cryptocurrency price.

2. Inflated Card Processing Fee - Using Apple Pay ( linked solely to my debit cards ), I paid a XXXX % card processing fee. 
- The average debit card processing fee is 0.73 %, so the debit card processing fee markup is over 500 %. 

3. Inflated Spread Fee - For XXXX and XXXX XXXX Buys, the spread fee is XXXX %, while the actual market bid-ask spread is almost always less than 0.0001 %. 
- The spread fee is therefore over XXXX times the true market spread. 

4. XXXX XXXX XXXX - XXXX the website 's confirmation screen, the cryptocurrency purchase amount and spread fee are not itemized separately ; instead, both are combined into a single line item labeled XXXX. 
- To determine the spread feeand the actual amount spent purchasing cryptocurrencycustomers must manually calculate the percent difference between the quoted price and the market price. However, this comparison is difficult, as the quoted price and market price are never displayed simultaneously on the same screen. 
- In contrast, the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbases embedded spread fees can be viewed by tapping a tooltip on the preview screen. 

5. Opaque Fee Disclosures- XXXX website acknowledges that the spread fee is not based on the bid-ask market spread ( it XXXX be based on a combination of factors " ). This explanation is difficult for consumers to find ; from the home page, it can not be accessed through a primary or even secondary menu. 
- Also, the app merely states that " a spread XXXX be included in the price '' without clarifying that it does not represent the market bid-ask spread. This omission is problematic since users can make purchases through the app without ever accessing the website. 

6. XXXX XXXX - XXXX cryptocurrency exchange XXXX offers a comparable service called Instant Orders with a clearly itemized 1.49 % transaction fee and 1 % convenience fee. 
- While XXXX 's total fees are at least 6.5 %, XXXX 's are fixed at 2.49 %. 

XXXX. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX daily trading volume exceeds {$1.00} XXXX. 
- Because XXXX XXXX is the default option for XXXX most inexperienced userswith experienced traders encouraged to use XXXX XXXX inflated fees disproportionately affect novice, low-information investors. 

Id be happy to provide additional supporting documentation upon request. 

This complaint is also being submitted to the FTC and the California Attorney General XXXX XXXX. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation