Tag: Jesse Powell

Jesse Powell to Step Down from Kraken CEO

by Blockchain News

Jesse Powell, co-founder of crypto exchange Kraken, is stepping down as Chief Executive Officer. Kraken said on Wednesday that Dave Ripley, the company’s Chief Operating Officer, will replace Powell as the new CEO.

According to Kraken, the transition is set to occur within the next few months after the firm finds a replacement for Ripley. Powell will remain at the company as chairman of Kraken’s board. The company revealed that Powell intends to spend more of his time focusing on the company’s products, user experience, and wider industry advocacy.

The outspoken Powell, an early Bitcoin advocate who founded Kraken in 2011, has denied that several company-related controversies prompted his decision to step down as CEO. He told Bloomberg media that he informed Kraken’s board of his upcoming departure over a year ago. “As the company has gotten bigger, it’s just gotten to be more draining on me, less fun,” Powell told Bloomberg.

Kraken stated that Ripley, who joined the exchange after it acquired his startup in 2016, was selected following a thorough internal and external search over the past year.

Powell has been at the center of several controversies facing the firm this year. In March, Kraken was one of a few crypto exchanges that avoided an outright ban of Russian accounts unless ordered by the State Department to do so. Powell said the exchange was within the legal sanctions requirements, but indiscriminate bans were unfair to average Russians, who might not support the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

In June, Powell posted inflammatory messages about race and gender on the company’s Slack. During that time, he questioned employees’ use of preferred pronouns and engaged in a lengthy discussion about whether men are inherently more intelligent than women. Some employees raised complaints, and Powell released a company culture document outlining what he described as Kraken’s libertarian values. He told workers that if they disagreed with the document, they should quit, and some did.

In response to a report by The Times media on Kraken’s internal conflict, Powell tweeted in July that he was returning the company “back to dictatorship.”

In July, Kraken came under spotlight when the Treasury Department launched investigations against the company for breaking U.S. sanctions. Kraken was suspected of violating U.S. sanctions by allowing users in Iran, Syria, and Cuba to trade crypto assets on its platform, disregarding government bans on engaging in business with the three countries.   

Kraken was founded in 2011 by Powell and Thanh Luu as one of the first major exchanges for investors to buy and sell digital assets in the US.

Image source: Shutterstock

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Kraken Shuts Down San Francisco-based HQ, Blaming for Local Safety

by Blockchain News

Kraken, the first cryptocurrency exchange to become a bank in the U.S., has shut down its headquarters in San Francisco on grounds, saying that a region is no longer a safe place for its business.

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As contained in a statement released by Kraken’s Chief Executive Officer, Jesse Powell, the closure of its headquarters became necessitated, attributing to the local safety as lots of its employees have been attacked on the streets, robbed, and harassed on the way to and from the office.

The outspoken Kraken boss has blamed the policies of the District Attorney for the San Francisco area Chesa Boudin, whom he noted “Ingloriously Protects” criminals based on his ‘Catch and Release’ program. 

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Source: Kraken

The challenges the trading platform is facing seem to extend beyond just its employees’ safety, as the statement from Powell also noted that its business partners often refuse to visit again after being victimized. The complaints have showcased how lawless the San Francisco area, deemed as the financial capital of California, has been, a tag that is notably against its business prospects.

According to the statement from Powell, the crimes being perpetrated in the city are grossly underreported because San Francisco is a very prominent city. Powell believes “San Francisco is not safe and will not be safe until we have a DA who puts the rights of law-abiding citizens above those of the street criminals he so ingloriously protects.”

Kraken is a regulated cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, one of the largest with a known headquarters. With the closure of the firm’s operating base on Market Street in San Francisco, it is obvious, unless otherwise stated, that the trading platform will operate like Coinbase and Binance, two giants in the space with no notable headquarters.

There is no indication of the next steps for the trading platform nor a statement from the DA based on allegations Powell levied on Boudin. On social media, many have supported the claims of Powell, while a number of others believe the proliferation of tech firms helped raise the cost of living and the high rate of crimes in the area.

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Kraken CEO Says Bitcoin Below $40k Is A Buying Opportunity

by NEWSBTC

Jesse Powell, the CEO of the popular crypto exchange Kraken, has said that Bitcoin under $40K would be a good buy, while also predicting that the dollar will go to zero.

Bitcoin’s Fall Is A Buying Opportunity

If the price of Bitcoin falls below $40,000, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell says the present downward pressure would provide another purchasing opportunity for investors.

The Kraken CEO discussed the crypto market in an interview with Bloomberg TV, revisiting his former prediction that BTC will climb to $100,000 by the end of the year.

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“But I think a lot of people see anything under the $40,000 as a buying opportunity. I was personally buying when we dipped back to $30,000 a few months ago. A lot of people have some dry powder on the sidelines just waiting to come back in at rock-bottom prices.”

Bitcoin was expected to exceed $100,000 by the end of 2021, according to Jesse Powell. Despite the fact that he stated that there are still a few days left, at a press time price of $49,396, and given the present trend, a milestone as significant as the one promised is unlikely to occur.

Related article | Kraken Director Dan Held Tags Traditional Financial Institutions A “Cartel”

Long Term Investment If Dollar Falls

Powell acknowledged that his past predictions for Bitcoin may have been off the mark, but added that it’s difficult to foresee what will happen next in the market. However, he believes that anyone considering investing in Bitcoin should consider it as a “five-year plus investment.”

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He also discussed Bitcoin’s more volatile nature, stating that this is more obvious on shorter time frames, with its price swinging dramatically in a day or over a week. He feels that the best method is to treat cryptocurrency as a “buy and hold” investment.

“Bitcoin is something I think about as a long-term investment because it’s difficult to predict short-term price moves,” said Powell. “It’s a speculative asset in many ways, but you can’t help but be impressed by how far it has come and the amount of innovation that’s happening around it.”

While Powell remains bullish on cryptocurrency, particularly Bitcoin, he paints a bleak picture for the US dollar. With interest rates expected to go negative and the dollar approaching “zero,” he believes the best option for investors is to avoid holding their currencies in the greenback.

Powell addressed the decade-long uncertainty in the US regulatory regime and the lack of a proper set of regulations in the sector. As a result, several companies have shifted their headquarters offshore in search of greener pastures, while others have remained on the sidelines, fearful of the implications.

Powell also discussed Kraken’s ambitions as the crypto industry grows in popularity, stating that the exchange wants to help combat disinformation that could harm new investors. Kraken is also planning to launch a non-fungible token (NFT) platform to capitalize on the growing interest in the field.

BTC below will present opportunity, kraken ceo says

BTC price chart on Kraken | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com

Related Article | Did US Regulators Began Offensive Against Crypto Platforms? CFTC Fines Kraken

Featured Image from Pixabay - Charts by TradingView

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Kraken CEO reverses $100K BTC 2021 forecast: Crypto winter now possible

by Cointelegraph

As Bitcoin (BTC) continues to trade sideways around $48,000, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell is not counting out a potential crash on cryptocurrency markets in the short term.

A crypto winter is now “possible,” Powell said in a Dec. 14 interview with Bloomberg Technology, noting that Bitcoin and the crypto ecosystem have historically evolved around cycles based “sort of around the Bitcoin halving.”

But despite a potentially looming crypto winter, Powell is confident that the market will bounce back from a bear market once investors start buying should BTC drop below $40,000:

“I think a lot of people see anything under $40,000 as a buying opportunity. I was personally buying when we dipped back close to $30,000 a few months ago and I think a lot of people are just waiting to come back in at rock bottom prices.”

In the interview, Powell mentioned some of his previous Bitcoin predictions, including his $100,000 Bitcoin forecast for late 2021. The CEO made this prediction in August, stating, “I think we could see $100,000 plus a coin late this year-early next year.” He also predicted that Bitcoin price is going to ‘infinity’ in March.

“It’s hard to know where it goes,” Kraken CEO said in the latest interview, noting that he is still bullish on Bitcoin in the long term. “When you look at a long-term trendline of Bitcoin and it’s just up consistently. I always tell people ‘If you think about buying Bitcoin, think about it as a five-year plus investment.’”

Related: Bitcoin sheds ‘dumb money’ as retail buys most BTC since March 2020 crash

Many prominent figures in the crypto community predicted BTC to hit $100,000 by the end of 2021, including stock-to-flow model creator PlanB, Morgan Creek Digital Assets co-founder Anthony Pompliano, SkyBridge Capital CEO Anthony Scaramucci and others.

Last week, Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan claimed that $100,000 by the end of the year was a “difficult prediction to make,” suggesting that the price level could come in 2022.