Crypto is Really for the People, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell Says

The chief executive officer of crypto exchange Kraken, Jesse Powell, is still very bullish on Bitcoin and does not advise anyone to bet against the world’s flagship cryptocurrency.

Appearing on Bloomberg Markets and Finance on Tuesday, the Kraken CEO hailed Bitcoin’s fundamentals as he revealed to have bought himself more coins when BTC hit $18,000. Speaking to Matt Miller and Kailey Leinz, he said:

“I wasn’t expecting all this craziness in the macro environment, however, I’m still hopeful that I’ll be able to buy a Bugatti by the end of the year for one Bitcoin.

“I’m still very bullish, I bought Bitcoin again at $18,000, so I’m happy to ride it all the way back up. I’m still very bullish in the long run, the fundamentals keep improving, so I would never bet against Bitcoin.”

Powell said that is a challenge to find the right balance between those Bitcoin fundamentals on the one hand and operating within government guidelines on the other hand. He detailed:

“Yeah, it’s a tough challenge you know. It’s why we have these conversations going on all the time. We are really trying to educate regulators and law enforcement and lawmakers about the real risks here and about the real need for financial privacy and who cryptocurrency really serves and beyond the speculative use case here in the United States.

“It’s really helping people all over the world who have less access to financial services. You know there are billions of people in the world that don’t have access to a bank account.”

So crypto is really for those people first and foremost.

During the interview, Powell also highlighted the need for regulatory clarity, which currently does not benefit crypto and called for the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to put more effort into understanding cryptocurrencies:

“We’re about 13 years on with Bitcoin now and we still don’t have answers from the government on this. I think it’s largely a legislative failure, I think regulators are going to read the law to increase their scope as much as possible.

And as we’ve seen with the SEC, they really take the view that basically everything is a security and they would like to regulate everything and be the regulator of all crypto companies.”