Kraken Jesse Powell: U.S Crypto Regulations Are Forcing Investors Out Of The Country

Kraken’s Jesse Powell: U.S Crypto Regulations Are Forcing Investors Out Of The Country

In a recent interview with the Unchained Podcast, co-founder and former CEO of the crypto exchange Kraken, Jesse Powell, claims that U.S crypto regulators and regulations are causing massive harm to the crypto industry.

Powell’s Claims

In this podcast Powell argues that the United States’ regulators overly strict regulations make it difficult for crypto-based companies to operate due to the fact that they are preventing exchanges and other crypto companies from offering various products.

It’s because of this reason, Powell argues, that a lot of crypto companies are forced to leave the US, and start elsewhere in the world with more flexible crypto regulations.

“It basically forces people to go offshore for things that they otherwise would be able to get in the United States.” Jesse Powell said.

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“Just take futures trading, for example. It’s not available in the United States. Trading certain tokens which the SEC would probably call securities is not allowed in the United States, and there’s actually no license to be able to do that whatsoever. It’s not just a matter of getting the right license. There’s no license, and so the SEC would say, ‘Yeah, there’s just no way to do this activity, period, in the US.”

Criticism Against Regulators

This isn’t the first time US regulators like the SEC have gotten criticism from big figures in the crypto industry, in fact, the SEC have often been criticized by major crypto exchanges like Coinbase.

Just earlier this year Coinbase argued against the SEC’s decision to probe their exchange arguing that the regulators haven’t yet made enough clarity in defining which cryptocurrencies are labeled as securities and which are commodities.

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“When it comes to crypto securities there is a significant, foundational hurdle that has prevented that market from maturing. That hurdle is the fact that the securities rules simply do not work for digitally native instruments,” Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad wrote in a petition back in July.

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