As part of our efforts to provide German clients with a localized product offering, there will be a number of changes to the Kraken Futures user experience for German clients. If you wish to use our Derivatives product, you will be required to re-verify your Kraken Futures account.
During your re-verification, you’ll need to undergo an appropriateness test to ensure that Derivatives are suitable for you to trade.
What is the appropriateness test?
The appropriateness test will help determine whether you are a Professional or Retail client.
- If you are classified as a Professional Client, your margin levels with Kraken Derivatives will remain unaffected.
- If you are classified as a Retail Client, your margin requirements will be increased. Any open positions may be at risk of immediate liquidation if not sufficiently collateralised with 4x maintenance margin.
- If you are classified as a retail client and you believe you are eligible to be classified as a professional client, please contact Kraken support.
- If you fail the appropriateness test during the remediation, your positions will be closed by October 8, 2024.
If you are classified as a Retail Client, margin requirements will change to an initial margin (IM) of 50% and maintenance margin (MM) of 25%, representing a maximum 2x leverage. This margin schedule will be applied across all derivative contracts and all position sizes for retail classed clients as soon as you remediate.
If you are a Retail Client or believe to be, please perform the following steps to ensure the smoothest possible experience.
If using cross margin:
- Ensure your positions are sufficiently collateralised to avoid liquidation when margin requirements are increased.
If using isolated margin:
- Set your maximum leverage to 2x.
Please note: These changes will take effect as soon as your re-verification is complete.
Example:
You are holding a long position of 10 ETH on the PF_ETHUSD contract using cross margin, the current ETH price is $3,300 and you have $5,000 USD as collateral. The position was opened with an average entry price of $3,000, and has $3,000 unrealised profit.
Your initial margin (IM) is 2% of the position size at entry ($600) and your maintenance margin (MM) is 1% ($300) under the current margin schedule.
If you classify as retail, margin requirements change to 50% IM and 25% MM, this position of 10 ETH will require an IM of $15,000 and MM of $7,500. As the account held $5,000 as collateral and the position has an unrealised profit of $3,000, an additional $7,000 of collateral will be required to be deposited before this date to avoid liquidation while maintaining sufficient margin.
If you do not re-verify by October 8, 2024, your derivatives positions will be closed and you will not be allowed to trade derivatives.
How do I re-verify?
Using the button below please sign in and re-verify your Kraken Derivatives account before October 8, 2024.
View the step below for a guide on how to re-verity:
- 1Sign into your account via Kraken Pro and click Get started.
- 2You will be shown a prompt to accept the associated risk with CFDs. To proceed accept and click Continue.
- 3Review the Investor information to help determine your client status and select the option that applies to you.
- 4You will then be required to verify your chosen status (if you identify as a Professional client, you will be required to upload additional documents).
- 5Next, update Additional information including your Tax identification number.
- 6That’s it! Please allow some time for our team to process your request.
If you do not re-verify in time or if you fail the appropriateness test during your derivatives re-verification, your open Futures positions will be closed and trading will be restricted. Until October 8, 2024 your derivatives positions will remain with Singapore Broker PTE. After October 8, 2024 DLT Securities GmbH will be the broker for all Kraken Derivatives trading.