Kraken CEO Seemingly Regrets Decision To Settle With SEC; Urges Congress To Protect US Crypto Industry

Jesse Powell, the co-founder and exiting chief executive officer of the centralized cryptocurrency exchange platform Kraken, appears to be regretting the CEX's recent decision to pay $30 million to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and has urged Congress to help protect the cryptocurrency industry.

Powell reacted to SEC chairman Gary Gensler's interview with CNBC about Kraken's charges and sarcastically commented that had he seen it before, he would have never agreed to the financial regulator's terms.

"Oh man, all I had to do was fill out a form on a website and tell people that staking rewards come from staking," the outgoing CEO of Kraken said, noting that he "wish I'd seen this video before paying a $30m fine and agreeing to permanently shut down the service in the US. How dumb do I look? Gosh."

In the interview, Gensler mentioned Kraken's failure to register its staking service when all it had to do was fill out the form available on the regulator's official website.

Interestingly, when the host of "The Once Beaten Pod" who uses the Twitter handle @PrinceySOV, asked the CEO to who he wrote the $30 million check, Powell jokingly said that the funds "go to [the] Treasury. From there, I imagine it will be sent on to Zelensky or Pfizer."

In a separate tweet, Powell urged Congress to protect the domestic crypto industry or run the risk of seeing investors do their crypto businesses offshore.

"Congress must act to protect the domestic crypto industry and US consumers who will now be going offshore to obtain services no longer available in the US."

Powell's tweet was a comment on the statement of House Majority Whip Tom Emmer about the SEC's recent decision on the Kraken issue.

"Gary Gensler's regulatory purgatory strategy hurts everyday Americans the most - leaving them in the dust while these opportunities are accessible offshore," the lawmaker said in a tweet, tagging the SEC chairman.

Kraken reached a settlement agreement with the SEC on Feb. 9 and agreed to pay $30 million in disgorgement, civil penalties and prejudgment interest. He also agreed to cease offering the crypto staking program for its U.S. clients.

The SEC ruled that Kraken, the fourth biggest cryptocurrency exchange platform in terms of trading volume, failed "to register the offer and sale of their crypto asset staking-as-a-service program, whereby investors transfer crypto assets to Kraken for staking in exchange for advertised annual investment returns of as much as 21 percent."