Kraken has completed its 2024 Proof of Reserves, marking another disclosure effort aimed at giving clients greater visibility into how their balances are backed onchain. According to the announcement, the latest attestation became available on November 1, 2024 and covers more than $21.5 billion in client assets.
The exchange said the verification process was conducted by an independent third-party accountant and was designed to allow customers to confirm that their account balances are fully backed by assets held onchain. The attestation spans several of the market’s most widely used digital assets, including BTC, ETH, SOL, USDC, USDT, and XRP.
What the attestation includes
Kraken stated that the Proof of Reserves package includes multiple components rather than a simple wallet snapshot. These include details on client liabilities, a method for customers to cryptographically verify their account balances, and an attestation confirming Kraken’s control over the onchain assets associated with customer funds.
This structure matters because a reserve report is generally more useful when it addresses both sides of the equation: what the platform owes customers and what assets it demonstrably controls. By combining liabilities data with wallet control verification, the disclosure is intended to provide users with a clearer way to assess whether balances are appropriately backed.
Third-party verification by The Network Firm
For the 2024 review, Kraken engaged The Network Firm, a registered CPA firm, to attest to its control over the wallets holding client balances. In practical terms, that means the review was not limited to internal company representations. Instead, an outside accounting firm was tasked with examining whether Kraken controlled the relevant onchain addresses connected to customer assets.
That distinction has become increasingly important in the digital asset industry, where transparency around custody and reserve backing remains a central issue for exchanges and users alike. Independent review does not replace broader financial disclosures, but it can serve as a meaningful tool for showing that a platform holds identifiable onchain assets corresponding to customer balances.
Why Proof of Reserves matters
Proof of Reserves has become one of the most closely watched transparency mechanisms in crypto. For exchanges, it offers a way to publicly demonstrate asset backing using blockchain-verifiable data. For users, it can provide an additional layer of confidence by enabling direct or cryptographic checks tied to their own account balances.
In Kraken’s case, the company emphasized that customers can verify whether their balances were included in the attestation process. This client-facing verification element is a key feature of many reserve reporting frameworks because it extends transparency beyond a headline figure and gives individual users a way to independently confirm inclusion.
The ability to perform that kind of verification is particularly relevant in an industry where trust often depends on observable data rather than solely on corporate statements. By making reserve attestations available to clients and including a cryptographic verification method, exchanges can provide a more technical and auditable basis for their claims.
Scale of the disclosed assets
The reported total of more than $21.5 billion in client assets underscores the scale of Kraken’s custody obligations and the significance of the reserve check itself. The covered assets include not only bitcoin and ether, but also major stablecoins and alternative crypto assets such as SOL and XRP, indicating that the attestation spans a broad set of holdings commonly used by retail and institutional clients.
Because the disclosure references customer assets rather than a narrow subset of holdings, the figure provides a useful snapshot of the size of balances examined in the process. It also suggests that Proof of Reserves reporting is no longer a niche compliance-style exercise, but an increasingly central part of how major exchanges communicate solvency-related information to the market.
A broader signal on exchange transparency
Kraken’s latest attestation reflects a broader industry trend toward standardized transparency measures built around onchain verifiability. While reserve attestations do not necessarily capture every aspect of a company’s financial health, they can help answer a fundamental question for customers: whether the assets linked to exchange balances exist onchain and are under the platform’s control.
That is especially relevant for custodial businesses, where users rely on the exchange to safeguard funds until they are withdrawn or traded. The more clearly an exchange can demonstrate wallet control, liability inclusion, and user-level verification, the stronger its transparency narrative becomes.
Kraken’s 2024 Proof of Reserves therefore serves two functions at once. Operationally, it provides a mechanism for clients to check reserve backing tied to their balances. Strategically, it reinforces the company’s effort to position itself as a platform willing to subject key custody claims to external review.
With the attestation now available, users and market observers can review a disclosure that combines onchain asset control, customer liabilities, and cryptographic verification features under an independently conducted process. In a market that continues to prioritize trust, custody clarity, and verifiable backing, Kraken’s report is another example of how exchanges are leaning on third-party reserve attestations to strengthen confidence.