According to Kraken’s Chief Legal Officer Marco Santori, the crypto-exchange will soon launch its own bank.
Summary
Kraken and the crypto-exchange’s plans to launch its own bank soon
In an interview, it appears Marco Santori, Chief Legal Officer of Kraken, confirmed the crypto-exchange’s intentions to soon open its own bank.
Here is what Santori reportedly said in a podcast:
“Kraken Bank is coming, very soon. We’re going to have those ball-chain pens. We’re going to order thousands of them and stick them on the desks of Wall Street banks everywhere. With our logo on them.”
Kraken seems to be really intent on going ahead with its plans to launch its own bank, despite the difficult regulatory environment in the crypto sector.
In this regard, Santori again reportedly said:
“It’s really indicative of a rather unfortunate situation here in the United States. We have a regulatory environment that is essentially forcing users to use offshore exchanges that will gladly accept their business with just a VPN.”
Kraken and its bank after tough SEC decisions
The fact that Kraken is working on developing its own bank is also its response to how it has been treated, In fact, the crypto-exchange had to shut down some of its on-chain staking services for US customers to resolve charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it violated securities laws.
To come to terms with this, Kraken and the SEC signed an agreement last month in which the exchange was required to pay a $30 million penalty.
After this event, the SEC also took action against other established industry players, again on charges of “violating federal securities laws.”
And indeed, Binance also received the same charges, namely that of allowing US customers to trade crypto without complying with the laws.
Santori’s speech, relates somewhat to the thoughts set forth by Kraken’s next CEO, Dave Ripley:
“Many US users will now go to services offshore. Companies who are not interested in a regulatory forward approach. Who are the losers in all this? The American people.”
Incoming CEO @DavidLRipley talks to @andrewrsorkin about the regulatory path ahead for crypto in the US. pic.twitter.com/PTxWk5VgZ2
— Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) March 2, 2023
The decision to leave Signature Bank
A few days ago, Kraken publicly announced that it had decided to withdraw its use of Signature Bank for certain financial transactions.
In essence, via email, Kraken has already notified its users that non-business customers will no longer be able to make deposits or withdrawals in USD dollars, using Signature Bank.
This decision was made precisely because the bank appears to be making changes towards those who deal in cryptocurrencies. And indeed, Signature Bank has already announced that as of 1 February 2023, it would no longer support any of its customers to buy and sell amounts below $100,000.
Not only that, Signature Bank also stated that it would not be reducing its exposure to the crypto sector, though not eliminating it altogether.
