Kraken CEO Claims Regulators are Reluctant to Face Bad Actors

Kraken CEO, Jesse Powell claims that regulators take sides with bad industry players while making enemies with the good guys. 

According to his theory, regulators do this for a number of reasons which align with their agenda of discouraging crypto adoption, providing cover for attacks against good guys, and destroying resources and money in the crypto space.

Powell wrote on Twitter that he repeatedly alerted regulators to huge red flags and blatantly unlawful activities in the industry, but was disregarded for years.

He also highlighted that the bad players may eventually kill the good guys if they are not stopped. In addition, he claims the bad guys enjoy competitive advantages such as stealing investors’ monies and venture funding that would have gone to the good guys.

In a similar situation, the CEO and Founder of Custodia Bank, Caitlin Long has also criticized the Washington DC policymakers over their failure to heed her warnings regarding conceivably fraudulent cryptocurrency firms. 

Long stated that she had forewarned the government of the impending dangers of fraud before many exchanges became insolvent and filed for bankruptcy protection last year. However, she asserted that she was ignored instead, and her organization was alienated.

Kraken Exchange’s Issue with the SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges against Kraken over its failure to file the necessary paperwork to market and sell its staking-as-a-service program for digital assets.

According to the filed complaint, Kraken’s staking-as-a-service program supports a variety of cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum, Polkadot, Cardano, and many others. Customers can stake their digital assets straight from their Kraken exchange account, and Kraken takes care of all the technical details for them.

The SEC claims that Kraken has not registered the program, and failed to provide full disclosure and protection to its investors. Therefore, the agency asked Kraken to discontinue its staking program and pay $30 million to settle the SEC charges.

Meanwhile, the firm announced in December that it is suspending its businesses in Japan from January. At the time, Kraken said it needed to prioritize its resources where they are best suited for long-term success