Synthetic pairs

When you place an order on a synthetic pair, Kraken generates two trades behind the scenes. For example, if you want to buy DOGE using SOL, you would select the synthetic pair DOGE/SOL. Kraken then creates a buy order on DOGE/USD and a sell order on SOL/USD, sized in USD to fund the DOGE purchase. Both trades execute together inside the matching engine. A single DOGE/SOL trade appears in your history at the effective cross rate, with a single taker fee.

Synthetic pairs support market orders and limit orders.

Market orders execute immediately at the best available price across both underlying order books. Your execution is protected by the same Market Price Protection (MPP) threshold applied to the base asset's native pair. This prevents your order from filling at an extreme price during volatile conditions.

Limit orders let you specify a price. Synthetic limit orders do not rest in the order book, instead, Kraken continuously monitors the underlying order books and executes when there is sufficient depth to fill at your limit price or better.

All synthetic orders are filled in full. Partial fills are not supported, your entire order executes when the underlying books have sufficient liquidity within the price range.

Note: Both market and limit orders on synthetic pairs are always charged a taker fee, since synthetic orders do not rest in the order book.

You pay a single taker fee on the trade. This fee is lower than what you'd pay if you performed the same conversion yourself as two separate trades on the individual order books.

The effective spread on a synthetic pair is the combined spread of the two underlying order books. There is no additional spread markup on synthetic trades, you get the natural spread in each underlying book.

For many cross pairs, the synthetic route through the most liquid books actually produces a tighter spread than a native book would. This advantage is greatest for longer-tail assets where native books are thin or don't exist. However, for high-volume pairs with deep native books, the native book may offer better pricing than the synthetic route.

Synthetic pairs display real-time market data derived from the two underlying order books. This includes a live depth ladder and indicative order book, candle charts, volume profile, technical indicators, and a live ticker with 24-hour statistics. All synthetic market data is approximate and derived.

You want to buy 1,000 DOGE using your SOL balance. You select the synthetic pair DOGE/SOL and place a market order to buy 1,000 DOGE.

Kraken sees that DOGE/USD has a best ask of $0.20 and buys 1,000 DOGE for $200. It then sells SOL on SOL/USD at the best bid of $200 per SOL, requiring 1 SOL to fund the purchase. The resulting DOGE/SOL trade settles at an effective rate of 0.001 SOL per DOGE.

With a taker fee of 10 bps, the fee is 0.001 SOL. Your total cost is 1.001 SOL for 1,000 DOGE.

Your order is protected by the same MPP threshold applied to DOGE/USD.