Kraken To Focus More On Retail Investors: New CEO
- With the stepping down of Jesse Powell, the incoming CEO of crypto exchange Kraken, Dave Ripley says that he has huge shoes to fill since the exchange thrived under Powell and added that it will now focus more on its retail clients.
- Kraken has plans to launch a new NFT marketplace as well, which will allow clients to buy, sell, and trade NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. The firm will also offer the ability to custody NFTs as well.
- Ripley also stated that the crypto exchange will shift its focus to increase its team and expand its services around the globe in order to increase its client base.
The incoming CEO of crypto exchange Kraken, Dave Ripley, who will replace the current CEO of the firm, Jesse Powell, in the near future, said that he has “big shoes to fill” while adding that the crypto exchange will now focus more on its retail clients. Moreover, the exchange aims to navigate around regulatory roadblocks and work its way into the mainstream crypto adoption.
Interestingly, Kraken was formed in 2011 soon after the invention of Bitcoin, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency. It has since then made its way to the top of the industry and even marked a transaction volume of around $16.25 billion just last August as per the data from The Block Research. With the stepping down of Jesse Powell, Ripley says that he has huge shoes to fill since the exchange thrived under Powell.
“The most fundamental role that Kraken has played from the early days is being a bridge,” Ripley said in a wide-ranging interview with The Block. “Initially it was just a bridge to crypto generally. To buy and use bitcoin. But I think looking forward we want to extend that bridge to many other areas of crypto.”
Moreover, Ripley also stated that the crypto exchange will shift its focus to increase its team and expand its services around the globe in order to increase its client base. He stated that the current market downturn is worse than what has been experienced in the previous bearish market phases but that will not deter the firm not its expansion plans.
As per the report, Kraken has plans of launching a new NFT marketplace as well which will allow clients to buy, sell, and trade NFTs or non-fungible tokens. The firm will also offer ability to custody NFTs as well.
Interestingly, as per the CEO, the regulations are very important in terms of crypto adoption. “We think those are absolutely fundamental,” he said, but acknowledged that regulations for companies like Kraken are “a given” and expressed “hope in figuring out the right path for companies like us.”
Moreover, the volume of the crypto exchange has dropped significantly since all-time high in May 2021 of $100 billion.
“There’s always uncertainty in these cycles. So if we knew exactly when the market would become highly active again, and prices would move and all these types of things it would be a lot easier. But we don’t, so we don’t know the timeline. So that’s something that makes it also difficult to plan for,”
commented Ripley on the bearish cycle.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
