[2017-06-10] Kraken Enforces A Flat Withdrawal Fee for Bitcoin Transfers

[tyz]

Kraken Enforces A Flat Withdrawal Fee for Bitcoin Transfers, Dynamic Fees Coming Soon

More and more exchanges are forcing transaction fees upon users. That is not entirely surprising by any means, though. The Bitcoin network fees are on the rise as of late. It no longer makes sense for companies to pay these costs themselves. Kraken, one of the popular exchanges, introduces a flat fee right now. Withdrawing Bitcoin comes at the cost of 0.0025 BTC.

http://www.newsbtc.com/2017/06/09/kraken-enforces-flat-withdrawal-fee-bitcoin-transfers-dynamic-fees-coming-soon/

[bbc.reporter]

Then services like Shapeshift and Changely will gain more market share because it will not make sense to use the traditional exchanges for small trades anymore.

Have you tried the Jaxx wallet? It has Shapeshift integrated with the wallet for easy conversion.

[White sugar]

0.0025 fee for withdraws?

this is crazy

how much they actually pay in fees?

[iamTom123]

I am sure there would be other exchanges that might follow what Kraken just decided to transfer the cost to their clients. But am hoping that because of competition there would be other exchanges who will shy away from imposing the same rate of fees.

The best thing to do is to withdraw your Bitcoin when it is already a little bit large so that in terms of percentage to the withdrawn amount the fee is still minimal. Maybe this is also a way for Kraken to partially control the outgoing Bitcoin.

[1Referee]

0.0025 fee for withdraws?

this is crazy

how much they actually pay in fees?

Lower than average. Another thing is that they bundle withdrawals - exchanges wait till 5-10 people are withdrawing money within a few minuts apart, and then push these coins towards their owners. They collect 5x or 10x 0.0025BTC in fees, and add just 50% of the withdrawal fees people paid as transaction fee.

[Patinix]

They sent out a new email about reducing their fees, which is great!

[Iranus]

0.0025 fee for withdraws?

this is crazy

how much they actually pay in fees?

Lower than average. Another thing is that they bundle withdrawals - exchanges wait till 5-10 people are withdrawing money within a few minuts apart, and then push these coins towards their owners. They collect 5x or 10x 0.0025BTC in fees, and add just 50% of the withdrawal fees people paid as transaction fee.

Really, the fee shouldn't be more than 0.001.  With the withdrawals bundled together I'd be surprised if they had to pay more than 0.0005 in fees for each withdrawal.
The main reason why they would do that is to encourage people to bring liquidity, but this doesn't actually bring a significant incentive.

Exchanges can get away with some crazy policies now just as a "fee" for being relatively trustworthy.  People don't even care about exchange fees much anymore, just about avoiding the 99.9% of exchanges that are shady as hell.

[freedomno1]

I got that email the other day and thought it was pretty high but they sent another e-mail out that said they would batch them together to reduce costs at a rate of 0.001 so now there is a speed and batch option at least.
Not Bitgo or Tether though

[1Referee]

Really, the fee shouldn't be more than 0.001.  With the withdrawals bundled together I'd be surprised if they had to pay more than 0.0005 in fees for each withdrawal.

Point is that it's not only done because of the insanely high transaction fees, but also to generate themselves an extra bit of revenue. Let's say they keep 0.001BTC in their own pocket per requested withdrawal, in case of a major exchange, it might process like 500-1000 withdrawal requests on a daily basis. At most (per this example) that would give them 1BTC of extra income per day, 7BTC per week, 28BTC per month, 336BTC per year = $940,000. And I wouldn't be surprised if the actual figure is even higher than that. Not bad isn't it?

[richardsNY]

Point is that it's not only done because of the insanely high transaction fees, but also to generate themselves an extra bit of revenue.

I was wondering why exchanges didn't allow people to set custom fees, but that what you said makes sense, and could turn out to be the main reason as to why exchanges will not give people this freedom. I think as long as people aren't complaining, exchanges will continue to force people to pay their fixed withdrawal fees. Bitstamp still offers free withdrawals, but we don't know how long this will last -- at some point they will let go of the free withdrawals.... Free withdrawals aren't sustainable at todays costs.

[Netnox]

This is unbelievably high! Seriously? BTC0.0025 is equivalent to almost $7 at today's exchange rate, and it is almost 100 times higher than the average transaction fee three months back. Personally I have nothing against Kraken, but I would advice them not to exploit the recent delays in confirmation. Anyway, let's see the reaction from the other exchanges.

[Flyyyy]

Point is that it's not only done because of the insanely high transaction fees, but also to generate themselves an extra bit of revenue.

I was wondering why exchanges didn't allow people to set custom fees, but that what you said makes sense, and could turn out to be the main reason as to why exchanges will not give people this freedom. I think as long as people aren't complaining, exchanges will continue to force people to pay their fixed withdrawal fees. Bitstamp still offers free withdrawals, but we don't know how long this will last -- at some point they will let go of the free withdrawals.... Free withdrawals aren't sustainable at todays costs.

Many companies just want to make money on this. Well, or provide a quick withdrawal of funds. After all, everyone knows that if you set a small commission, then the transaction will be very long confirmed

[mostkey]

0.0025 fee for withdraws?

this is crazy

how much they actually pay in fees?

Exorbitant costs are very worrying, 00025 it is a very crazy amount for the cost of levying, but what will happen if this is realizable.Of course for now this may be a controversy