Since its earliest days, Kraken has hewed more closely to the AnCap libertarian ethos of crypto than just about any other American fintech. San Franciscan Jesse Powell brought the company to life in summer 2011 and by 2013 it presented as an alternative to the friendly AOL style welcome mat of Coinbase. Now headed by Co-CEOs Dave Ripley and Arjun Sethi, Powell became chairman in 2023 when Powell was subjected to what looks to have been some nasty weaponization of the Justice Department. Powell’s home was searched and the feds confiscated his computers, laptops and cellphones, according to the New York Times. The probe officially ended two years later with…
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Staking and Liquid Staking: a Primer
Part 1 of Staking: benefits and challenges for the crypto ecosystem
Staking – the practice of providing one’s tokens to help operate and secure a network, usually in exchange for rewards – is rapidly becoming a substantial ecosystem of its own as the number and market capitalization of cryptocurrencies using a “proof of stake” (PoS) consensus mechanism to verify transactions continues to grow (in contrast to electricity-intensive “proof of work” chains like Bitcoin). Staked / Kraken’s State of Staking Q2 report cataloged a number of impressive growth stats. While proof of stake’s share of the total crypto market cap increased only 2% quarter over quarter to 23%: The value of staked assets rose 61% to $68 billion Market cap of the…
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Crypto’s Illness: Regulatory Reluctance
Pending court decisions challenge SEC’s failed ‘regulation by enforcement’ strategy
The U.S. crypto industry has been learning a rough lesson in regulatory compliance in the past few months. With fines, cease and desist orders, agency warnings, and traditional finance counterparties withdrawing from the industry, it is becoming increasingly apparent that crypto has a compounding problem. Press play to hear a narrated version of this story, presented by AudioHopper. The origin of this isn’t FTX, Voyager Digital, Terra Luna, or any other of the business failures or frauds of 2022. Those are symptoms of another disease. The sickness that’s causing crypto to fumble in front of U.S. regulators and counterparties goes all the way back to the founding principles of Bitcoin…
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Bitcoin bull run fuels crypto investments across China: Report
China’s investors are so eager to pour capital into projects that a local VC investor said ‘every good-quality funding is oversubscribed within a week’
Chinese cryptocurrency mining hardware producer Ebang conducted two fundraising rounds in February alone, raking in $170 million, even after a previous offering in November, which followed its Nasdaq listing in June. “Ebang’s growth story is very attractive to institutional investors,” said Guo Yi, COO of Univest Securities. "Fundraising by all industry players is getting busier thanks to the Bitcoin bull.”
