Ornella Hernandez

<div id="highlights-block_632b5c753a014" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The exchange has over 3,000 employees and has recently replaced other top executives</li>
 <li>Powell is currently Kraken&#8217;s largest shareholder</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Crypto exchange Kraken is restructuring its leadership team.



CEO Jesse Powell will no longer lead the company he founded in 2011. Dave Ripley, chief operating officer at the exchange for the last six years, will succeed Powell once the search for his own replacement as COO has been completed.



Powell will remain at the company, however, becoming the chair of the board of directors. He is currently Kraken’s largest shareholder.



Powell shared in a statement that stepping down as CEO will enable him to spend more time on the company’s products, user experience and industry advocacy.&nbsp;



Ripley stated in a press release that his vision, “along with the rest of the leadership team, is in lock-step with Jesse’s – to accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrency.”&nbsp;



Kraken has over 3,000 employees and has recently replaced other top executives.



The company <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/latest-in-crypto-hiring-binance-recruits-former-regulators/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hired Carrie Dolan as chief financial officer</a> in March and then named <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayurgupta77/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mayur Gupta</a> its chief marketing officer in April.



Back in June, Kraken released a “culture document” that attempted to explain the company’s culture, which ended up being a controversial move.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">9/ Most people don&#39;t care and just want to work, but they can&#39;t be productive while triggered people keep dragging them in to debates and therapy sessions. The answer for us was to just lay out the culture doc and say: agree and commit, disagree and commit, or take the cash✌️&mdash; Jesse Powell (@jespow) <a href="https://twitter.com/jespow/status/1536978830757310466?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Kraken is the fourth-largest crypto exchange in terms of spot-trading volume, according to CoinMarketCap.



The exchange also has <a href="https://blog.kraken.com/post/13898/kraken-nft-is-coming-join-the-waitlist/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">plans</a> to launch its own NFT marketplace soon.



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Kraken CEO Jesse Powell Steps Down

Casey Wagner

<div id="highlights-block_622251fd6290d" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>More users are turning to crypto in Russia as the war in Ukraine intensifies, data show</li>
 <li>The notion that crypto is being used to avoid sanctions is unfounded, the CEO said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Cryptocurrency exchanges are standing their ground on refusing to unilaterally ban Russian users.



Demand for crypto is building from users in Russia, according to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, a sign that digital assets are providing a safe haven to the country’s sinking ruble.



“Some ordinary Russians are using crypto as a lifeline now that their currency has collapsed,” Armstrong said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1499622634367062016?s=20&amp;t=9CQr00wc3SUP-4YQ0Lo20w" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweet</a> Friday. “Many of them likely oppose what their country is doing, and a ban would hurt them, too.”&nbsp;



Jesse Powell, the CEO of Kraken, said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/jespow/status/1498112741684363265?s=20&amp;t=Q3iWCfEFwBiR6HkZcwV9Bw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweet</a> the California-based exchange “cannot freeze the accounts of our Russian clients without a legal requirement to do so.”



The argument that Russian entities would use crypto to sidestep sanctions is unfounded given the open-ledger nature of cryptocurrencies, Armstrong said. Should the US government issue new bans, Coinbase would comply, he added.



Trading volumes between bitcoin and the Russian ruble hit a nine-month high last week, according to data from cryptocurrency research firm Kaiko. Volume on the most popular BTC/RUB trading pair, which trades on Binance, shows the most significant surge since May 2021.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/JB1XQ06X6qFfzgWRD8RoLvbdR_1XyztDw5eX2-HG2HaQ-2YyIFnRl7t5An2u7xGM3yHZYnwnuge_lnPmFcP-K9uRDpKsxUFxLHTNXXL8XeUatMWjgFnP7FFapKumdfUrDW9wmAUP" alt=""/><figcaption>Source: TradingView</figcaption></figure>



Non-US based exchanges have taken a similar stance as Coinbase. Binance, which currently has <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/binance-scores-regulatory-win-in-bahrain-as-exchange-continues-mea-focus/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">no official headquarters</a>, will not “unilaterally freeze millions of innocent users’ accounts,” a spokesperson said.



Bahamas-based FTX “plans to continue complying with the laws related to sanctioned countries,” a spokesperson said.



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