Kraken Appoints SAFT Architect Marco Santori as Chief Legal Officer

Published at: April 6, 2020

The U.S. based crypto exchange Kraken has appointed Marco Santori as the company’s new chief legal officer (CLO), according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph on April 6th.

Santori’s background in crypto law

Santori is known for his work in litigating, advising and creating new laws in the crypto industry.

Among his professional experience, Kraken’s new CLO worked for Blockchain.com as President, in addition to being part of the Cooley LLP and Pillsbury Winthrop team.

He is also an advisor to the International Monetary Fund, the blockchain ambassador to the State of Delaware, and the chairman of the Regulatory Affairs Committee of the Bitcoin Foundation.

Challenges ahead in crypto’s legal matters

Speaking with Cointelegraph, Santori pointed out on some obstacles that crypto industry is facing nowadays in terms of regulation:

“A lot of regulators struggle to articulate crypto's core value propositions, though to be fair we in the industry are still trying to figure this all out. Crypto continues to evolve, and regulatory challenges will change with it. Additionally, it is important to me for there to be as much homogeneity across geographies as possible.”

In the company’s announcement, Santori highlighted the fact that the industry has undergone significant changes since his 2012 entry into the crypto world:

“The ‘industry’ at that time was just a small handful of bitcoin exchanges, miners and payment processors. There was only one network - Bitcoin. There was no regulatory guidance and no laws specifically written for digital currency. Now there is, of course, a great multitude of networks, a growing body of regulatory guidance, and even crypto-specific laws.”

Regarding what lies ahead at Kraken, the new company’s CLO stated that balancing effective advocacy across multiple regulators is a “challenge,” not only because of the different laws in their jurisdictions but also, because of the variety of cultural approaches.

Regarding his plans for the future, Santori added the following:

“I expect to continue my work in creating a regulatory environment that fosters innovation while sanctifying consumer well-being. Internally, I aim to create an environment of ability and success for all things legal — from product innovation to business partnerships and corporate governance.”

Santori is also well-known for being one of the authors in the SAFT Project’s paper “Toward a Compliant Token Sale Framework,” which has played prominently in U.S. regulators’ approaches to initial coin offerings.

Kraken’s new CLO told Cointelegraph that he intends to grow the legal team up and out to set the stage for future growth into new product lines and markets.

Kraken’s ongoing expansion

The announcement follows Kraken’s recently announced expansion plans in India after the country’s lift of a crypto ban.

Additionally, Cointelegraph reported on March 12th that Kraken had launched Forex trading for nine new fiat currency pairs.

April 6, 21:30 UTC: This article has been updated to include comments from Marco Santori received after publication.

Tags
Regulation
Cryptocurrency Exchange
Law
Kraken
Related Posts
CFTC hits Kraken with $1.25M in fines over alleged illegal offering
The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission is ordering crypto exchange Kraken to pay more than $1 million in civil monetary penalties related to allegations the exchange is violating the Commodity Exchange Act. In a Tuesday statement, the CFTC said U.S.-based crypto exchange Kraken — operating under the name Payward Ventures — has failed to register as a futures commission merchant and is illegally offering margined retail commodity transactions in digital assets. The order requires the exchange to pay a penalty of $1.25 million and “cease and desist from further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act,” the law under which …
Regulation / Sept. 28, 2021
Jack Dorsey warns that FinCEN regulations will drive crypto users offshore
Major U.S crypto firms are rallying against FinCEN’s proposed regulations that would force businesses operating with crypto to gather information on the identities of non-customer counterparties. A Jan. 4 letter from Jack Dorsey, CEO of financial services firm Square takes aim at the proposal for seeking to impose reporting obligations that go “far beyond what is required for cash transactions,” and that Sqaure would be expected to collect “unreliable data about people who have not opted into our service or signed up as our customers.” “Counterparty name and address collection/reporting should not be required for [virtual currency] CTRs or recordkeeping, …
Regulation / Jan. 5, 2021
Revealing crypto exchange’s physical location was not harmful, court rules
A federal judge has ruled that an employee who revealed the location of a major crypto exchange did not violate its trade secrets. According to court records filed Sept. 22, U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Payward Inc. — the owner of Kraken — against former employee Nathan Peter Runyon for misappropriating “trade secrets” by publicly disclosing the exchange’s physical address in San Francisco and accessing one of the company’s protected computers. The Judge ruled that Payward was not alleging Runyon used the address to gain an economic advantage, nor did the complaint include …
Regulation / Sept. 24, 2020
Uganda's finance watchdog calls for crypto regulations in the country
Uganda’s Financial Intelligence Authority wants the government to come up with clear-cut crypto regulations. According to a report by Ugandan media outlet Daily Monitor on Monday, the FIA has asked the country’s finance ministry to develop a legal framework for cryptocurrency regulations in Uganda. Sydney Asubo, executive director of the FIA, made the call during a meeting with stakeholders over the weekend. According to Asubo, the need for crypto regulations in Uganda has become of paramount importance given the noncompliance of industry participants to the agency’s licensing requirements. Indeed, the FIA amended the country’s Anti-Money Laundering laws to include crypto …
Regulation / May 24, 2021
$2.5T crypto market will not wait for nations to onboard: WazirX CEO
Indian entrepreneur and the CEO of crypto exchange WazirX Nischal Shetty envisions a race between countries to launch their local versions of central bank digital currencies (CBDC) in the coming year. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Shetty said that the year 2022 would be an extension of the ongoing discussions around crypto regulations, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and the emergence of the metaverse: “We’re optimistic that we’ll get regulatory clarity, see institutional participation fuel retail adoption. We also expect to see more metaverse projects making an entrance.” Shetty pointed out that the crypto industry today — directly or indirectly — employs about 50,000 …
Adoption / Dec. 29, 2021