Kraken CEO Jesse Powell steps down: Report

Jesse Powell, the co-founder and chief executive officer of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, has reportedly stepped down after more than 11 years at the platform.

According to a Wednesday report from Bloomberg, Powell will be succeeded as CEO by chief operating officer Dave Ripley, who has been with Kraken since 2016. The former CEO will stay with the crypto exchange as the chair of the board, while the company searches for a new COO over the next few months.

Powell reportedly said his decision to step back was due to Kraken growing in size: “It’s just gotten to be more draining on me, less fun.” He added he still planned “to stay very engaged with the company.”

After my neck injury & surgery, I had a hard time getting deep sleep. I went extreme on diet, meal timing, cutting caffeine and optimizing environment. Still, I needed perfection to get a good night's rest. Turns out, all I had to do was go back to lifting weights 30 min/day. pic.twitter.com/pZcg79E7O5

— Jesse Powell (@jespow) September 20, 2022

Related: Kraken awarded crypto trading license in the United Arab Emirates

As Kraken’s leader since 2011, Powell took the United States-based exchange through the early years of the crypto space. In 2022, he announced Kraken would be closing its global headquarters in San Francisco’s city center, and criticized “woke activists” as not being a good fit for working at the crypto exchange.

Cointelegraph reached out to Kraken, but did not receive a response at the time of publication. This story is developing and will be updated.