Jesse Powell, CEO of Kraken, on Drawing a Line With Regulators - Ep.61

Jesse Powell, CEO of crypto asset exchange Kraken, explains why he publicly rejected then-Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's request for information from crypto exchanges, why he felt it was a publicity stunt and why Kraken, which stopped serving New York customers after New York's Bitlicense was introduced, doesn't see the market as a top priority. He also talks about why Kraken decided to stop operations in Japan after further regulations were imposed and discusses Kraken's $1 million donation to Coin Center (and its $1 million match). Plus, he gets into why he named the exchange after a Norse sea monster, the dangers of the exchange's margin trading product, and what steps he recommends everyone in crypto take to keep their tokens safe.

Jesse Powell: https://twitter.com/jespow

Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/

Past Unchained episode with Brock Pierce who also had a pre-Bitcoin career involving video game currency (Jesse and Brock were competitors): http://unchainedpodcast.co/this-vc-is-sure-venture-capital-is-about-to-be-disrupted

Kraken's position on regulation (discussion of New York AG request and Japan + guidance for regulators): https://blog.kraken.com/post/1561/krakens-position-on-regulation/

Kraken donation to Coin Center: https://blog.kraken.com/post/1591/kraken-donates-1m-to-coin-center-with-an-additional-1m-matching-during-may/

Kraken down for 40 hours: http://fortune.com/2018/01/12/bitcoin-price-ripple-kraken-down/

Past Unchained episode on taxation of crypto: http://unchainedpodcast.co/the-tax-rules-that-have-crypto-users-aghast

Kraken blog post on phone numbers being hijacked: https://blog.kraken.com/post/219/security-advisory-mobile-phones/

My article on the same topic: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2016/12/20/hackers-have-stolen-millions-of-dollars-in-bitcoin-using-only-phone-numbers/#1d79923338ba

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