Update 3/20/26: Shown as $250 on main capital purchases page for some. Hat tip to the reader Ted
Update 12/21/25: Portal terms now exclude portal aggregation by referral. We don’t know if this is being implemented. “Applying a special offer with Kraken (Referral Code, Discount or Coupon) will negate your refund.”
Update 12/16/25: Public offering for $202 Topcashback. (Some recently reported being targeted at Capital One Shopping for $250.)
Offers
Note: Kraken is a crypto application and is not FDIC/SPIC insured. Do what you are comfortable with.
alone, there is a referral bonus of up to $150 per referrer and $150 per new member when new members sign up and trade crypto like Bitcoin (stablecoin does not work for referral bonus). You can sign up on the web or mobile app, but do your crypto trading on the Kraken app. Don’t forget to enter the code during the registration process. Bonus details:
- Trade $100 and get $15
- Trade $300 and get $20 ($35 total)
- Trade $500 and get $40 ($75 total)
- Trade $5,000 and get $75 ($150 total)
Reports indicate that you can buy ~$260 and then immediately sell ~$255 to get the entire $75 payout in one shot ($15+$20+$40). Buying and selling are counted separately, so if you buy $260 and then sell ~$255 (as you usually lose a few bucks in the spreading process) will be more than the $500 required.
Someone who wants to trade $5,000 can transfer over a smaller amount (eg $400 or $500) and then keep buying/selling the same amount until they meet the $5,000 threshold (eg $2,500 buy and then $2,500 sell). Keep in mind that there will be some loss with every sale, so you may not win on the $5,000 deal over the $500 deal if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Opt for 30-day free Kraken+ trial to save 1% trading fees; just remember to cancel.
There are several other types of referral links. All referral links should work for the $75 bonus if you buy/sell $500 (eg buy $260 and then sell $255). Most links also have the added bonus of $75 when you buy/sell $5,000.
Fine Press
- You need to trade actual crypto to qualify for the referral bonus while for the portal bonus you can trade stablecoin as far as I can tell.
- Both the referral and portal bonuses require the trade to be made in the first 30 days.
- The Kraken Referral Program is only available in the United States (excluding Maine, Washington and New York), Canada, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Poland, Italy, Belgium and Ireland.
- (Editor’s note: A reader points out that apparently the shopping portal component should also work in excluded states; just the referral bonus won’t.)
Our verdict
If you click through Rakuten, apply a referral code during registration, and then trade $500 in crypto within 30 days, you’ll end up with $15,000/$150 from Rakuten and get a $75 referral bonus from Kraken. You can trade an additional $4,500 in crypto to receive the additional $75 bonus if you choose.
I and others were able to get the portal to stack with a referral code by clicking through the portal and then entering a referral code. Within a few minutes you should receive the email from Kraken about the referral bonus. I did the Bitcoin trading and then immediately sold the Bitcoin as I didn’t want the money tied up in crypto and subjected to those long dangerous swings.
Note: even if you do Kraken+ for free trading, you can still lose some money as the cost of crypto fluctuates in minutes between buying/selling. I bought Bitcoin and sold it a few minutes later and somehow lost $6 in the process. This was with a small purchase of Bitcoin that I bought. Some people report even more losses, especially when trading larger amounts.
For this reason, many people will prefer the referral bonus of $75 for an easy purchase of $150 + $75 for a small crypto purchase of $500. Do what you are comfortable with. Ideas for those who want to make the $5000/$150 level:
- It is said that you can use the same funds to complete a level. For example, you can transfer at $260 and then buy $260 in Bitcoin and then sell to meet the $500 level ($260 buy + $255 sell = $515). Or you can transfer to $500-600 and trade it ten times (5x buy/sell) and meet the $5000 level.
- You can set a limit price for your purchases and sales, which can help reduce losses on each sale. Again, those not skilled in these methods may prefer to just make a simple $500 buy/sell (and maybe lose a few dollars along the way) in order to get the portal bonus + $75 referral bonus and ignore the second level.
If you are new to the Rakuten shopping portal, now is a good time to sign up for the $50/5,000 signup bonus. (There is even a chance that making this Kraken offer will be sufficient to meet the spending requirements for that signup bonus.)
After signing up with Kraken, you can also ‘Spin to Win’ once a day for the first 30 days and you should end up with another $20-$30 from that. This is a little bonus added on top. After registration, some people may also want to do Kraken bonus 2% ACATSit is enough to read carefully what we have written there and then decide.
You can find referral codes and links in this dedicated thread. Do not under any circumstances put your referral in the comments below.
Story update:
- Update 12/10/25: There’s now a chance to target yourself for a $250 bonus from Capital One; click around Capital One and the Kraken extension and see if they email you the offer. (This is a new tier, though some people may prefer the older offer of 15,000 Rakuten Points to $250 in Funny Money from Capital One Shopping.)
- Update 12/8/25: Reduced to $125
- Update 12/6/25: $150 more Rakuten now. They also now have a Daily Spin until December 25th for existing users. It’s the same thing you got when you were a new user, except now you have to make a transaction to get it. For example, you can buy or sell 1$ in USDG or whatever, and then you will be able to spin and earn daily. Most prizes are like $.25, but often people get $.50, $1 or occasionally even more.
- Update 12/3/25: Rakuten is at $125 now and TCB is at $127.26. Hat tip to the reader TOOL
- Update on 11/25/25: Rakuten it’s back to $150/15,000 now. Worked to collect the $75 referral bonus as discussed in the post.
- You can find a reference in this post – comments there are closed to new comments. Do not leave a referral in the comments below and no referral fishing.
- Update 11/24/25: Rakuten it’s back to $125/12,500 now. Not as good as the $150 bonus we used to have, but pretty close. Worked to collect the $75 referral bonus as discussed in the post.
- Update on 11/20/25: Rakuten it’s back to $125/12,500 now. Topcashback is $127. Not as good as the $150 bonus, but pretty close. Worked to collect the $75 referral bonus as discussed in the post. Maybe we’ll see $150 again from portals at some point.
- Update on 11/17/25: Topcashback it’s at $152.51 right now, so that’s another option. Rakuten it’s also still at $150/15,000. Some people have complained about Topcashback tracking, so it probably makes more sense to do Rakuten. (Personally I used Topcashback a while ago. It tracked me and fined me, and also collected with the referral.)
- Update on 11/15/25: Rakuten now $150 again.
