The newly appointed CEO of crypto exchange Kraken has said that he has no plans to register the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or to delist any tokens that have been labeled as securities by the SEC.
In a Reuters report on Thursday, Earnings CEO Dave Ripley sees no reason to register with the SEC as an exchange because it does not offer securities.
“There are no tokens that are securities that we are interested in listing,” he said.
However, he did not rule out a complete list of security tokens, saying: “There may be some new tokens that will be interesting and at the same time security, if that is the case, we might be interested in that way.”
Kraken co-founder Dave Ripley is set to replace CEO Jesse Powell after he decided to step down after more than 11 years in the top job on September 21, citing the company’s massive growth and the huge drain on him to keep track of it all.
In a company statement announcing the leadership change, Ripley said his goals going forward are “in lockstep” with Powell, adding that Powell plans to be “very involved with the company.”
Ripley’s statements on crypto assets clearly contradict SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s recent views on the state of crypto exchanges and tokens.
On September 15 in the Senate Committee on Banking, Gensler reiterated his position that most cryptocurrencies are securities and that many intermediaries, such as exchanges, broker-dealers and custodians, work on securities and must be registered with the SEC. capacity”
“Crypto intermediaries may one day need to register with both the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC),” and there are already dual registrants.
The SEC has already launched an investigation into alleged unregistered securities trading at Coinbase earlier this year.
At the time, Michael Basina, an Australian digital assets attorney with Piper Alderman, told Cointelegraph that the case “could have a severe and chilling effect” on crypto exchanges and token projects, adding that “the ultimate finding is not tokens or securities. .”
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Gensler has come under fire this year for the agency’s approach and lack of action against “big fish” crypto exchanges.
In the past, Kraken has received criticism from the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for allegedly allowing users in Iran and other countries to buy and sell crypto.