Jesse Powell of Kraken Exchange Criticizes US Regulators
Jesse Powell i.e. the CEO of globally renowned crypto exchange, Kraken, expressed his displeasure over Kraken’s dispute with the US Regulators. He shared his thoughts on Sunday when he was engaged with followers on Twitter.
Powell stated that the people at the helm of affairs at regulators are getting uglier and pursuing a self-serving agenda.
He lambasted the US regulators by alleging that they were working on a ‘three-fold agenda’.
He stated that the first agenda involves total annihilation and taking away all capital resources from the digital asset industry.
The second agenda, according to Powell, is to incite hatred amongst the public against cryptocurrencies so that nobody dares to adopt them.
As regards third, he suggested that regulators are targeting ‘good actors’ and want to sacrifice them at the altar of ‘good governance’.
Regulators Are Siding With ‘Bad Actors’
Kraken’s CEO also asserted that regulators are siding with the malicious actors while the good actors are treated as ‘worst enemies’.
They do not have the right procedures and checks in place to identify whether a project or a firm is legit or illegitimate.
Turns out, it is always the good actors who end up facing the wrath of the regulators while the bad ones roam freely.
This is because good actors do not hide any of their operational aspects. Whereas, the bad actors keep their projects concealed and do not share much information with the regulators to investigate them.
He stated that the regulators are letting lose malicious actors roam free so that they can destroy good people in the industry.
Powell further asserted that undue advantages are being offered by regulators to bad guys. In return, bad guys are usurping existing and potential users, drying up revenues and resources at the expense of good people.
Congress Funding A ‘Scapegoat’
He even criticized regulators for obtaining funding from people at the helm of affairs of Congress. He alleged that such funding is often acquired for the sake of effectively managing and supervising the digital asset industry.
He claimed that ‘Congress funding’ is actually the regulators’ ‘scapegoat’. He then suggested that the regulators would have been on the industry’s side if the industry had earmarked a budget for the regulators.
Powell then argued that ‘politician funding to regulators is in fact sponsoring ‘disasters’ otherwise exchanges are returning rather bigger rewards to the public’.
Powell’s Remarks an Act of Retaliation
Obviously, Powell was speaking on behalf of his exchange, Kraken, which was subject to enforcement action by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC).
Out of nowhere, SEC thought to take up the ‘staking’ feature offered by Kraken and subsequently raised objections against the same.
Kraken then tried to convince SEC that there was nothing wrong with the staking but the attempts failed. Consequently, SEC issued directives that Kraken Exchange should immediately suspend its ‘staking’ feature and inform the customers.
Subsequently, SEC imposed a hefty fine upon Kraken over the ‘staking’ and demanded to settle the dispute by depositing $30 Million.
Kraken had no choice but to follow the directives of the SEC and decided to suspend staking forthwith and paid the fine. Otherwise, the entire services of Kraken could have been stopped by the orders of the SEC being the regulator.
Powell’s criticism was hence a response in retaliation which was aimed at SEC to realize that it was wrong in the decision.
FTX’s Customers in Limbo
He even went on to state that not a single dog barked when he identified illegal activities in the industry to the US regulators.
Instead, ‘his firm was dealt with strong hands even though it wasn’t involved in any illegal activity’, claimed Powell.
Of course, he was referring to FTX as Powell had pointed out irregularities in FTX at a time when the firm hadn’t collapsed.
He said that if SEC had listened to him, FTX’s customers would not have been left in ‘limbo’.
