LEGAL-DISCLAIMER: You run this bot completely at your own risk! I won't take any responsibility for what happens to you and all the points I make are just assumtions.
This project resembles a flexible "Dollar Cost Average" (DCA) executor for the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken! In-Depth English and German videos below. Everyone of you can do this, trust me!
The project has zero dependencies. What you see is what gets executed! All in one file.
Please send me feedback!
If this is worth something to you, feel free to throw me some Sats:
Bitcoin Mainnet: bc1q4et8wxhsguz8hsm46pnuvq7h68up8mlw6fhqyt
Bitcoin Lightning (telegram): codepleb@ln.tips
PayPal:
It buys Bitcoin for you at every price, as often as possible, continously. It is made so that it should only run out of money when the next fiat deposit is supposed to happen. And it constantly adapts itself automatically after each executed buy order, to the current Bitcoin price and to the remaining fiat.
Tested currencies that work: EUR, USD, GBP, CHF, AUD. Others might work as well, but I only tested with those four. Feel free to test it with others, as the worst you can get is an error message. :)
The more fiat money you deposit onto Kraken, the more frequent you will be buying Bitcoin! This works thanks to the algorithm taking the minimum possible order size on kraken and executing it as many times as possible, over the spread of a month, so that you run out of FIAT when the next FIAT drop is supposed to happen! You get your salary once a month? You deposit some of it to kraken once a month? Then this bot will be permanently buying Bitcoin in the time in between.
At the time of writing this readme, when you deposit 500 euro each month, you would buy Bitcoin approximaltely every three hours. If you deposit 1500 Euro each month, you would buy every hour!
Example: You deposit FIAT money every month, worth 0.01 BTC. The minimum order size on Kraken is 0.0001 BTC (minimum trade volume). 0.01 / 0.0001 == 100 orders over the next month. Until the next FIAT deposit, it will equally spread 100 buy orders over time. The amount of orders cannot really be absolutely esimated at the beginning, but it will be recalculated after every buy, because if the BTC price would double during that time, the amount of orders possible will obviously become half as much.
If you suck at trading, but believe in the vision of Bitcoin, then fire up this bot and relax. You will still buy the tops, but also the dips! You weaken one of your biggest enemies: Psychology!
If you do that over the some time, you cannot be unhappy anymore. If the price of Bitcoin rises, then your already accumulated Bitcoins are more valuable! If the price of Bitcoin tanks, then you can buy cheaper and therefore more often! You might change your perspective on markets, thanks to this bot.
Kraken is by far the cheapest option that I know. Kraken has one of the best prices and a very high trading volume. The fees always remain very low and withdrawals cost less than a dollar (around 7 cent)! Plus Kraken is said to be the most secure exchange to this date. Their focus on security is pretty high and they never had a known hack, although they run one of the oldest exchange out there. In my opinion, the security rules they apply make a lot of sense and I never worked with an exchange that took security this seriously.
- The bot assumes that you deposit money once a month and if that day is a weekend (saturday or sunday), it will automatically be taken into consideration. Money can be deposited all the time though... But as long as you deposit money regularly at least once a month, you should never run out of fiat and be buying Bitcoin as often as possible!
- To really take DCA seriously, it is adviced that you run your computer 24/7 (can run on a raspberry, uses almost not resources). The bot can also be used to do buy orders in general with any amount that you define. For that purpose, you don't need to run the computer constantly.
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Create an API key in your Kraken account with ONLY the options
Query FundsandCreate & Modify Orders. IMPORTANT: If you want to let the bot automatically withdraw funds to your private wallet, also select the optionWithdraw Funds. Selecting other choices will be a risk to your account and does not provide any advantage! -
Start the bot by opening a terminal and entereing the following into a terminal (do not write the '<>' characters):
- Schema:
KRAKEN_API_PUBLIC_KEY=<your public key> KRAKEN_API_PRIVATE_KEY=<your private key> KRAKEN_WITHDRAWAL_ADDRESS_KEY=<'description' of your withdrawal address> WITHDRAW_TARGET=<number> CURRENCY=<your currency, e.g. USD / EUR / CHF / GBP / AUD> FIAT_CHECK_DELAY=<number in milliseconds, default: 600000> node bot.js - Example bot start - Minimal Version:
KRAKEN_API_PUBLIC_KEY=8b9j4hD7mhPVDAoDZrZ8BPsJWoBCQ0XmBMPPb4LPBDpMjpXPgD4sc+Ps KRAKEN_API_PRIVATE_KEY=Xbg0kGG1qtvCnuFu9pLSk8pnWq8xSXVo/qg9p58CVqSSWYQ=uv1gUJ7eYpf9Fp4rnpBggpm4n597FjHuHvHgSo== node bot.js - Example bot start - 'Including Withdrawals'-Version:
KRAKEN_API_PUBLIC_KEY=8b9j4hD7mhPVDAoDZrZ8BPsJWoBCQ0XmBMPPb4LPBDpMjpXPgD4sc+Ps KRAKEN_API_PRIVATE_KEY=Xbg0kGG1qtvCnuFu9pLSk8pnWq8xSXVo/qg9p58CVqSSWYQ=uv1gUJ7eYpf9Fp4rnpBggpm4n597FjHuHvHgSo== CURRENCY=USD WITHDRAW_TARGET=0.1 KRAKEN_WITHDRAWAL_ADDRESS_KEY="my ledger nano" FIAT_CHECK_DELAY=600000 node bot.js - WINDOWS USERS BEWARE! Your command looks like this (the "&&" characters separate each command and they need to be placed WITHOUT whitespaces around):
SET KRAKEN_API_PUBLIC_KEY=8b9j4hD7mhPVDAoDZrZ8BPsJWoBCQ0XmBMPPb4LPBDpMjpXPgD4sc+Ps&&SET KRAKEN_API_PRIVATE_KEY=Xbg0kGG1qtvCnuFu9pLSk8pnWq8xSXVo/qg9p58CVqSSWYQ=uv1gUJ7eYpf9Fp4rnpBggpm4n597FjHuHvHgSo==&&SET CURRENCY=USD&&SET WITHDRAW_TARGET=0.1&&SET KRAKEN_WITHDRAWAL_ADDRESS_KEY="my ledger nano"&&SET FIAT_CHECK_DELAY=600000&&node bot.js
- Schema:
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Leave the bot running for as long as you want to keep buying. :) A buy order will instantly trigger as soon as you start the bot (if you have some money left).
- Open a Terminal
cd ~ && mkdir kraken-dca-bot && cd kraken-dca-botENTERcurl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/raphaellueckl/kraken-dca/master/bot.js --output bot.jsENTERKRAKEN_API_PUBLIC_KEY=8b9j4hD7mhPVDAoDZrZ8BPsJWoBCQ0XmBMPPb4LPBDpMjpXPgD4sc+Ps KRAKEN_API_PRIVATE_KEY=Xbg0kGG1qtvCnuFu9pLSk8pnWq8xSXVo/qg9p58CVqSSWYQ=uv1gUJ7eYpf9Fp4rnpBggpm4n597FjHuHvHgSo== CURRENCY=USD WITHDRAW_TARGET=0.1 KRAKEN_WITHDRAWAL_ADDRESS_KEY="my ledger nano" node bot.js(replace parameter values - likeCURRENCY=...- with your custom data) ENTER- DONE! If there are any errors you don't understand, update
Nodeon your system. Node 17.8+ works fine.
Download Node here if you don't have it: https://nodejs.org/en/download/
- Download and install
docker: https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/ (Windows users: Download and installgithttps://git-scm.com/downloads) - Clone this project:
git clone https://github.com/raphaellueckl/kraken-dca.git && cd kraken-dca - Adapt the file
docker-compose.yml: Add your kraken-keys, currency, and so on (only change the values inenvironment) - Open a terminal within that folder.
- Run the command
docker compose up -d
If you have questions, find further info below, where the parameters are explained and/or watch the videos! :)
These are the variables you add in the command that starts the bot. If you use docker, those reside within the docker-compose.yml file in the section services -> bot -> environment
# Values containing whitespaces NEED to be enclosed within "".
KRAKEN_API_PUBLIC_KEY: # Your Kraken public key, created here: https://www.kraken.com/u/security/api/new
KRAKEN_API_PRIVATE_KEY: # Kraken private key, created alongside the public key.
CURRENCY: # One of: USD / EUR / CHF / GBP/ AUD || DEFAULT: USD
DATE_OF_CASH_REFILL: # [Optional, if you don't restart your bot often or don't care about not all fiat being used by the end of the first DCA cycle] Day of the month where you usually deposit fiat. E.g. 26 || DEFAULT: ignored
KRAKEN_WITHDRAWAL_ADDRESS_KEY: # [Optional, if you don't want automated withdrawals to your private Bitcoin wallet] Name of the Bitcoin wallet, that you registered on kraken. This enables automated monthly withdrawals E.g. trezor || DEFAULT: ignored
WITHDRAW_TARGET: # [Optional, if monthly withdrawals are good enough for you] If you accumulate X amount of Bitcoin, initiate an automated withdrawal. This ONLY works, if the variable 'KRAKEN_WITHDRAWAL_ADDRESS_KEY' is also given. E.g. 0.01 || DEFAULT: ignored
KRAKEN_BTC_ORDER_SIZE: # [Optional for almost anyone! Only adapt if you don't hustle that maximum DCA lifestyle] Any Bitcoin amount above the default || DEFAULT: 0.0001
FIAT_CHECK_DELAY: # [Optional for almost anyone!] The time between each cycle. Any number in milliseconds! || Default: 60000 (which is 1 minute)
cd ~/kraken-dca-botcurl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/raphaellueckl/kraken-dca/master/bot.js --output bot.js- Done. Start the bot as described above.
Disclaimer: I'm no docker expert and the following is based on user feedback.
cd ~/kraken-dcagit pulldocker system prune -a(I'm not sure if this is the best idea, but it seems to work)docker compose up -d
Adding the parameter KRAKEN_WITHDRAWAL_ADDRESS_KEY enables automated withdrawals, that will ALWAYS execute on the first day of each new month, at approximately the time of when you started the bot.
If you do not want to withdraw monthly but rather when hitting a certain target of accumulated bitcion, then you can override this behavior by also providing the WITHDRAW_TARGET parameter! So when you define a WITHDRAW_TARGET, monthly withdrawals are automatically disabled and withdrawals will execute as soon as you accumulated as much as defined, even if you target takes several months to reach.
Kraken does not allow withdrawals to random addresses. You have to register them here under Manage withdrawal addresses. What Kraken calls "Address description" is what you need to set as KRAKEN_WITHDRAWAL_ADDRESS_KEY.
VIDEO! - Watch my videos explaining the FULL process so that each and everyone of you can come on board!
Notice: I cannot update these videos as frequently as I do this readme, as it takes much more effort. The videos contain the correct way to go, but the command I enter has different parameter names and so on. The steps are all the same essentially, but whenever you have to type something to the terminal, please check the readme rather than the info from the videos.
English Version: YouTube Video
German/Deutsch Version: YouTube Video
let's say I deposit $500 right now, and then a week or two from now decide to toss in another $100 or $200. does it adjust for that?
Yes! After every buy it checks "how much money is left", "how much time is left until the next deposit?" and when you add another 200$ you will be buying Bitcoin more often (given the BTC price stays the same)!
Isn't it more expensive to buy often compared to buy once a month, fee wise?
On Kraken, no! You pay fees in percentage to the value traded (Maker-Fees). You can read it up here: https://www.kraken.com/features/fee-schedule/#kraken-pro
Why is the withdrawal address not variable?
Fix for that: It is, if you do it manually (restart the bot once a month, after each withdrawal, with a new address).
Answer: It's not possible because of (IMHO unnecessary) complexity and also because the privacy aspect is just made up. Kraken knows all of your withdrawal addresses and they could give the government information about it anyways. It's not that new addresses are unknown to any party, so adding this feature would be of no value.
Discord channel for news and updates: https://discord.gg/TARdDh4hN8
Also feel free to contact me on telegram: @codepleb