Controlled cryptocurrency exchange with American registration, Kraken, was founded in 2011. On the exchange, there are currently 634 trade pairs and 203 coins accessible. The recorded Kraken 24h volume is $540,942,574.80 — a change of 180.81% over the previous 24 hours as of 26 September 2022. The most active trading pair has a 24-hour volume of $97,709,070.20 and is USDT/EUR.
What’s Happening with Kraken?
Since Kraken exchange does not provide securities, the incoming CEO has no intention of registering with the SEC. Once a new COO has been hired, the company’s former chief operating officer, Dave Ripley, will take over as CEO.
The information comes after the shocking declaration last week that Jesse Powell, the founder of Kraken, will leave his position as CEO after more than ten years in charge.
According to Reuters, Ripley also said that the exchange has no plans to delist any tokens that the SEC has unofficially determined to be securities. With its refusal to cooperate with the US regulator, the corporation stays true to its libertarian principles. He mentions that “there are not any tokens out there that are securities that we’re interested in listing. There could be some new tokens out there that become interesting and also happen to simultaneously be security, so in that case, we would potentially be interested in that path”.
Ripley will assume leadership at a difficult time as cryptocurrency prices have fallen nearly 70% since their all-time high.
These Are Not Securities
Contrary to what SEC Chair Gary Gensler argues, he noted that the extensive list of coins available on Kraken is not securities. According to CoinGecko, the exchange provides 203 coins and tokens in 634 pairings.
According to Ripley, they would only consider registration if a different token appeared that “becomes intriguing and also happens to be a security at the same time.” While cryptocurrency assets behave more like commodities than securities, a security is defined as an “investment contract” comparable to stocks or shares.
Leading exchange Coinbase is under investigation by the SEC for similar problems with the listing of securities.
Before stating that the company is looking into the potential in the mergers and acquisitions sector, he stated that “there aren’t any tokens out there that are securities that we’re interested in listing.”
The crypto crash and contagion, which led to many bankruptcies for companies like Celsius and Voyager Digital, have mostly not affected Kraken. It is seeking acquisitions to enhance its product offering, including banking services for institutional clients and a potential nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace.
Since it permitted Iranian users to access the platform, Kraken is also being investigated for sanctions violations.
Extensive Database of 9 Million
According to CoinGecko, Kraken’s 24-hour volume is currently close to $275 million. It is not among the top 30 centralized exchanges by daily trade volume, with a reported nine million customers. With almost 14% of the entire volume, the BTC/USD pair is the most active.
The market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies fell to $966 billion during the Monday morning Asian trading session, with little under 1% of the day’s value lost (on CoinGecko).
Kraken’s COO expressed that the exchange would think about acquisitions that aimed to improve its product and tech portfolios as it intended to spread its services beyond the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) industry rather than registering with the market regulator. According to the Bitcoin Era, the company intends to introduce a new platform to provide institutional investors with banking services.
