TL;DR
- Synthetic Pairs on Kraken Pro allow traders to execute altcoin-to-altcoin or cross-asset trades in a single atomic transaction, eliminating the need for manual two-hop routing through an intermediary asset like USD or USDT.
- All synthetic trades on Kraken Pro are executed with a single consolidated taker fee, settled atomically inside Kraken’s matching engine, and recorded as one entry in trade history, with an “S” indicator displayed next to synthetic pairs in the interface.
- Kraken’s Synthetic Pairs cover 10,000+ trading pairs built on 478 USD spot pairs, with support for 21 quote assets spanning fiat currencies (GBP, AUD, EUR), stablecoins (USDT, USDC, DAI, PYUSD, USDG, EURC, PAXG, USD1), and crypto quotes (BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, DOGE, and more), with Market Price Protection (MPP) applied to all market orders.
A simple solution to a common problem
Active traders, you know the scenario: you want to move from one altcoin to another, or trade into a local fiat pair that doesn’t have meaningful native liquidity. So you do what you’ve always done: break it into two trades, manage the gap between legs, and pay fees twice for the privilege. It works. It’s just inefficient, and that inefficiency has a real cost.
Synthetic Pairs on Kraken Pro changes that.
The problem with two-hop routing
When native order books are thin or missing entirely, traders have historically routed through an intermediary (typically USD, USDT, or another liquid asset) to get where they need to go. Two orders, two execution windows, two fees.
The operational overhead is manageable. The execution risk is not. Between the first and second leg, the market moves. Slippage compounds. And the trader absorbs the cost of a structural gap that shouldn’t exist.
This isn’t a niche problem. Altcoin-to-altcoin conversions, AUD corridors, low-liquidity local fiat pairs: these are everyday routing challenges for active traders operating outside deep USD books.
What Synthetic Pairs do
Synthetic Pairs route both legs of the trade through Kraken’s deepest underlying order books and execute them atomically inside the matching engine. From the trader’s perspective, it looks and behaves like a single native trade: one order, one fill, one position, one fee.
The routing, sequencing, and liquidity aggregation happen behind the scenes. Traders interact with a unified market surface; no asset switching, no intermediate positions, no second confirmation.
An “S” indicator appears next to any pair drawn from a synthetic market, and each synthetic trade is recorded as a single entry in account history.
How it works in practice
Say you want to trade SOL for DOGE. There’s no native SOL/DOGE order book with meaningful depth. With Synthetic Pairs, Kraken routes the order through SOL/USD and DOGE/USD (the two deepest underlying books) and settles it as a single SOL/DOGE transaction. You see one trade. You pay one fee.
Feature breakdown
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Total synthetic pairs | 10,000+ |
| Base assets | 478 USD spot pairs |
| Quote assets | 21 assets across fiat, stablecoins, and crypto |
| Supported fiat | GBP, AUD, EUR (quoted via USD) |
| Supported stablecoins | USDT, USDC, DAI, PYUSD, USD1, PAXG, USDG, EURC |
| Supported crypto quotes | BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, DOGE, LINK, ADA, BNB, LTC, ZEC |
| Order types | Market and limit orders |
| Fee structure | Single consolidated taker fee |
| Execution | Atomic, inside Kraken’s matching engine |
| Market Price Protection | Same MPP threshold as the base asset’s native pair |
| UX indicator | “S” tag on synthetic pairs in the interface |
| Trade history | Recorded as a single trade per synthetic order |
Order types and price protection
Synthetic Pairs support both market and limit orders.
Market orders carry the same Market Price Protection (MPP) as the base asset’s native pair. If you trade BTC/AUD synthetically, the same MPP threshold applies as BTC/USD; your order won’t execute beyond that threshold, protecting against excessive price impact during volatile conditions.
Limit orders work differently from native pairs: synthetic limit orders don’t rest in the order book. Instead, the engine continuously monitors the underlying books and executes when there’s sufficient depth to fill at your limit price or better.
Trade smarter, route less
Synthetic Pairs is now live on Kraken Pro.* Active traders who regularly navigate fragmented liquidity (whether in altcoin corridors, local fiat markets, or cross-asset conversions) now have a structurally cleaner way to execute.
One trade. One fee. No manual routing required.
* Synthetic Pairs not yet available in Canada