For security reasons, we require a digital asset / cryptocurrency deposit to receive a number of confirmations on its blockchain before the funds can be credited to your account. 

What are confirmations? 

When a transaction is broadcasted to the network, it has to wait to be included in a block by the miners. Once a transaction has been included in a mined block, the transaction has received 1 confirmation. With each subsequent block, the number of confirmations increases for the transaction.

Why are there confirmation requirements? 

To avoid the risks of double spending, funds aren’t credited until a certain number of confirmations have taken place (as listed below).

The more confirmations received, the more permanent / irreversible the transaction is.

How long do confirmations take?

Each block is found at a different rate depending on the blockchain.

For example, on the Bitcoin blockchain, a block is mined on average every 10 minutes, and Kraken only credits Bitcoin deposits to a client’s account after 6 confirmations, which takes approximately 60 minutes. 

However, sometimes it can take Bitcoin miners 30 or even 60 minutes to mine a single block (1 confirmation). This is outside of Kraken's control.

Kraken's confirmations requirements

* Execution times can vary based on the conditions of the network, but approximate times are listed here. The time estimates assume that your transaction has been confirmed in the first block after the transaction was sent. If your transaction did not confirm in the first block possible, it may take significantly longer depending on network conditions.

Note that we are not able to affect the speed at which transactions are confirmed on their respective blockchains.