By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 17th, 2024
Since Ripley became COO of Kraken, the company grew from 50 to over 3,000 workers. Besides, under his guidance, Kraken completed more than 16 acquisitions and secured a significant number of global regulatory licenses and partnerships.
On Wednesday, one of the largest and oldest Bitcoin (BTC) exchanges in the world Kraken announced changes in its leadership board. Its CEO Jesse Powell, who joined Kraken more than ten years ago, will stay in the company as the chairman of the board of directors. Kraken’s current COO, Dave Ripley, who has been with the company since 2016, will replace Powell as a new CEO.
Powell said:
“Dave’s proven leadership and experience give me great confidence that he’s the ideal successor and the best person to lead Kraken through its next era of growth. I look forward to spending more of my time on the company’s products, user experience and broader industry advocacy.”
Dave Ripley joined Kraken back in 2016 as a result of Kraken’s acquisition of award-winning wallet funding service Glidera. He started his career as a software engineer, and then, he was serving as a software development manager and later product manager at Syclo. From 2011 to 2014, Ripley advised Fortune 500 executives on key strategic priorities across multiple industries as a principal of the Boston Consulting Group. In 2014, Ripley founded Glidera Inc, a successful market-leading blockchain company.
Since Ripley became COO of Kraken, the company grew from 50 to over 3,000 workers. Besides, under his guidance, Kraken completed more than 16 acquisitions and secured a significant number of global regulatory licenses and partnerships.
Kraken Under Powell’s Leadership
Jesse Powell took Kraken exchange through the early years of the crypto space development. The company was one of the first exchanges to offer spot trading with margin, regulated derivatives and index services. In the nearest future, Kraken is planning to launch its own NFT marketplace. Now, it has over 10 million clients and institutions around the world and offers professional, around-the-clock online support.
In 2020, Powell piloted Kraken toward record trading volumes. Besides, under his guidance, Kraken reentered the Japanese market after a two-year absence and launched in Australia. In September 2020, Powell led the push for Kraken to become the first digital-asset company to receive a US bank charter recognized under federal and state law.
In the first quarter of 2021, Powell oversaw the launch of the Kraken Bank in Cheyenne, Wyoming, a turning point in the integration of crypto with mainstream finance that put traditional banks to shame with its 100% backing.
This year, the company was under the process of investigation by the US Treasury Department for allegedly allowing Iranian users to use the platform, which is a violation of international sanctions against the Iranian regime. However, Powell denied the correspondence of the investigation and his decision to step down.