Our notice regarding The Ethereum Merge will be updated as more information becomes available.

We estimate funding (deposits and withdrawals) may be unavailable for 12 hours or longer during The Merge. This estimate could decrease/increase depending on network conditions. Visit status.kraken.com for real time updates.

No, this happened automatically to your ETH custodied at Kraken. There was no need to convert your existing ETH into anything else before, during or after The Merge. The newly merged asset maintained the ETH name.

As of the successful completion of the Shapella upgrade you can now unstake ETH from your Kraken account. 

Please review our blog for more information.

Ethereum underwent an upgrade, known as ‘The Merge,’ which involves a transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, within Q3/Q4 2022. During this transition, new forked tokens may be created.

The Merge was a major milestone for the Ethereum community and Kraken supported this event in ways that help our clients and Kraken's mission.

The ETH ticker represents the token on the updated PoS Ethereum chain post-merge. Kraken subjected any newly forked token(s) to the same strict review process that we follow before making any token available for trading. It is not guaranteed that any such tokens will be made available for trading, as per our policy.

Updates:

Additional resources:

These materials are for general information purposes only and are not investment advice or a recommendation or solicitation to buy, sell, or hold any digital asset or to engage in any specific trading strategy. Some crypto products and markets are unregulated, and you may not be protected by government compensation and/or regulatory protection schemes. The unpredictable nature of the cryptoasset markets can lead to loss of funds. Tax may be payable on any return and/or on any increase in the value of your crypto assets and you should seek independent advice on your taxation position.

Article last updated 16 September 2022 17:00 UTC

Yes, since the Shapella upgrade was completed you can now unstake ETH. For more information visit our Ethereum Shapella Upgrade FAQ.

At the time of the merge, percentage rates for your staked ETH are currently estimated between 3% and 6% annually (APR). These rewards will continue after The Merge.

After The Merge, Kraken also collects additional rewards payable to stakers. This includes tips paid to Kraken’s validators as a result of fee activity on the Ethereum network and for MEV activity.

Kraken uses market leading software to maximize the rewards payable to stakers and shares this with our clients in the same way as inflationary staking rewards. The additional rewards are issued to your account (estimated to begin on September 25th 2022 after 01:45 UTC) as unstaked ETH, fully unlocked and able to stake, trade or withdraw in your account. Kraken will continue to distribute weekly rewards on a variable rate that reflects what we’ve earned Onchain minus our fee. Rewards will vary according to the rules of the Ethereum protocol.

There are currently no transaction fees for staking or unstaking. Kraken takes a commission based on the rewards you receive from the network. For more information, refer to overview of onchain staking on Kraken.

These rewards are visible in the Earn page underneath the Total rewards column.

Yes, in order to stake ETH you first need to deposit or buy ETH.

You can stake ETH following this guide. Newly staked ETH will undergo a bonding period of up to several weeks (often less than a couple of hours, depending on network conditions) before it will start earning ETH rewards.

The Ethereum 2.0 network imposes an activation period on new validator nodes, which may cause a delay in distributing ETH staking rewards. To ensure staking rewards are distributed fairly, newly staked ETH will undergo a bonding period of up to several weeks (often less than a couple of hours, depending on network conditions) before it will start earning ETH rewards. After the bonding period has elapsed, staking rewards will begin to accrue.

No. Unlike other assets which can be staked on Kraken, ETH2 rewards do not compound so you will not see the Grow Rewards feature available.

No, staked ETH must be unstaked in order to trade.

No. Unlike regular ETH, staked ETH cannot be used as collateral assets for margin trading.

Yes. As the Proof of Stake upgrade had the majority support of the Ethereum community, the ETH index will continue as the Proof of Stake chain after The Merge.

Fixed maturity contracts were settled to the Proof of Stake chain. Any new Proof of Work asset arising from a fork after The Merge will be treated as an entirely separate asset.

Fixed maturity contracts were settled on their usual settlement date.

Due to the Proof of Stake upgrade having majority support of the Ethereum community, both ETH perpetual contracts continued to trade as the upgraded Proof of Stake chain.

Kraken Derivatives reserves the right to update the margin schedule at any time without warning. However, we will endeavor to give as much notice as possible via platform notifications. Note that if there is not sufficient margin in a trader’s wallet to meet updated requirements, position(s) can be liquidated.

If the ETH PoW airdrop is supported on spot, your ETH balance in your Derivatives account at time of the snapshot will be included. Your spot account was credited based on the combined balance of your spot and Derivatives accounts at the time of the snapshot. Unrealized PnL on single-collateral inverse Derivatives positions were included in the snapshot.

Note: Unrealized PnL on multi-collateral positions with ETH as the PnL preference were not included.