The Kraken cryptocurrency exchange is \”playing the long game\”, despite the emergence of \”new reputational threats\” to the industry, said Jesse Powell, co-founder of the platform.
The game feels a bit more fair today. The last 12 months have answered 2 nagging questions from shareholders:
1. How are they going so fast?
2. How are they getting away with it?\”Trust me, any day now…\” is only believable for so many years. It’s hard to keep faith while…
— Jesse Powell (@jespow) November 23, 2023
In his view, the game has become \”more fair\” after an agreement between the U.S. Department of Justice and Binance, under which the latter will pay $4.3 billion as a penalty in settlement of criminal claims.
SEC filed suit against Kraken’s parent companies, alleging a lack of registration as a trading platform.
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\”The last 12 months have answered two nagging questions from shareholders: how are they moving so fast, and why are they getting away with it. It’s hard to keep faith when your market share is shrinking and all this is happening against the good guys,\” Powell wrote.
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He added that \”every crafty transaction\” gives the government the chance to make the crypto industry a scapegoat. Consequently, the market cannot rely on timely protection from authorities, so self-policing is necessary, the Kraken chief said.
He believes that Coinbase, Ripple and Kraken itself have become easy targets for the SEC in its own backyard.
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\”The simplest thing you can do is to use and direct people to services that fight these battles (for example, Kraken), which are playing the long game and serve as a good example for the industry,\” the exchange chief proposed as a solution to the problem.
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Earlier, Jesse Powell criticized the Commission after the lawsuit against the company, calling the agency \”the main brake\” on the crypto market. He also warned businesses about the need to \”flee the United States\”.
In February Kraken agreed to pay $30 million to settle the dispute with the SEC over the staking program.
In March the FBI conducted a search at Powell’s home as part of a criminal investigation into charges of hacking the nonprofit organization he founded.