Kraken Boss Jesse Powell: US Regulators Let Actor Unlike Cryptocurrency Ecosystem

Kraken CEO Jesse Powell discussed US regulators. (Photo; Doc. Bolsamania)

JAKARTA - Kraken CEO Jesse Powell shared his opinion on crypto regulation in the United States via his Twitter account on Sunday, February 19. Powell stated that US regulators "Let bad people become big and explode because it fits their agenda."

According to him, regulators want to destroy capital and resources in the crypto ecosystem, ignite people and hinder adoption, and provide protection to attack good actors. Powell mentions that bad people are actually on their side, while good people are enemies.

Powell said that bad people operate with huge competitive advantages, so they can suck up users, income, and venture capital that should fall into the hands of good people.

He also highlighted how regulators often seek more funding from Congress to better regulate the crypto sector. Powell criticized that funding is often used as scapegoats by regulators, who always wanted to increase their budget without having real consequences for their failure.

Furthermore, the Kraken boss expressed his disappointment about how regulators often ignored his warning about illegal activities in the crypto space and then slapped his exchange with law enforcement measures.

He mentioned that regulators have always ignored this issue for years for the same reason, namely that such activities are difficult to monitor because they are abroad and complicated.

I can't tell you how annoying it is to show the big red flag and illegal activity to regulators just to get them to ignore this issue for years. They are abroad. It's complicated. We saw everyone. Over the years. Then as an example for them," Powell wrote in his Twitter post on Friday 17 February.

He added that when regulators finally took action, they were pursuing a crypto exchange that had actually warned them of the illegal activity.

Kraken itself recently received action from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its staking program. The crypto exchange closed the staking program for US customers and agreed to pay 30 million US dollars in the form of disputement, title interest, and civil law.

It shows that even though Powell has his own opinion on crypto regulation, Kraken remains subject to existing rules and laws.