npm-kraken-bot

A console-based crypto trading bot built for Kraken crypto exchange.

Disclaimer

I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY LOSS OF FUNDS OR ANY OTHER DAMAGES FOLLOWING USE OF THIS SOFTWARE. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. NEVER INVEST FUNDS THAT YOU CANNOT MISS.

Introduction

I became interested in automated crypto trading, and as I don't want to monitor a website for market data myself, I decided to write a bot that decides when to buy/sell and execute the commands. This project makes use of the Kraken API to do some basic automated crypto trading using a custodial wallet that you configure using an API key. Conceptually it leans on the idea that the most important decision in trading is when to buy and that selling is only a natural consequence. Therefor, the configuration leans on when to buy crypto, which generally means defining how much an asset should drop over time before it becomes interesting. Some additional safeguards and checks have been built in to ensure that the bot will not amass too much of the same asset (promoting diversification) and limits amounts invested when markets are getting too high.

Key features

• Includes a simple internal web interface for manual inspection of recent trades and orders.
• Automatically monitors all trading pairs available on the exchange and responds to any price change on minute-by-minute basis.
• Will only invest a smaller percentage of the wallet when prices get higher (as observed by BTC price) to reduce risk.
• The bot has built-in logic to dump a token if it dropped more than 10x the desired sell price.
• Constantly monitors Bitcoin Fear & Greed index and will switch into "stop loss mode" once a certain amount of greed is observed.
• Exposes basic balance data so it can be logged or graphed by external software (see crypto-stats).

Known issues

• As Kraken volume is larger on EUR compared to USD or other currencies, the bot is hardwired to trade against the EUR asset. You need to have some EUR balance for it to be able to work.
• The bot tries to keep at most X percentage of any asset in wallet. However, if an asset price drops dramatically (eg. the 2022 Terra/Luna asset collapse) it could mean that the bot keeps buying more of the asset while it drops further. Thread with caution, and never put funds in your wallet that you cannot miss.
• If you configure the bot to buy too easily (eg when assets are not actually dropping in price much) you might end up buying for higher price than you sell. Ensuring that percentageDrop is set to at least 5% or more will likely prevent this from happening.
• Some newly listed assets might not immediately work due to parsing errors in the token name or other unexpected issues.

Requirements

• Console based environment with recent Node and NPM available, can be Windows or Linux based.
• Ideally, the bot runs 24/7 to respond to market developments. So consider lightweight Docker containers or Rasperry Pi-like devices. The bot has been tested to run fine on Raspberry Pi 3 and up.
• You will need an account at Kraken exchange, and an API key linked to a wallet containing sufficient funds to begin trading. Note that the funds must be in EUR as this is the currency the bot will use to buy crypto assets.

Installation

To use;

1. Review settings.js, change any settings you like or simply leave at default.
2. Rename .env.example to .env and add your kraken API keys there.
3. Install the dependencies using npm -i.
4. Run the application using node server.js.

Note that new settings will only be reloaded upon restart of the application.

License

Licensed under GPL-3.0.

Donations

Made some money using this bot and want to thank me? Feel free to send donations to:

ETH: 0xf923fe5103D9FA645161c244024e9f8c7Ed67E29 Solana: 9eFx8BNJGNN1PLkWxAxX3kLHVSLnnApFZfdcNMr3TjcR