# Kraken **Kraken** (Payward, Inc.) is one of the oldest and largest U.S. crypto exchanges. Jesse Powell founded it in 2011, and it is now run by co-CEOs Arjun Sethi and Dave Ripley. For this vault it matters as a bellwether: its path from SEC defendant to Federal Reserve account holder in two years is the Trump-era crypto settlement in one company. Not to be confused with [[Release the Kraken]], the 2020 election conspiracy. ## Powell and the culture war Powell is the exchange's political face. In 2022 he circulated a company "values" document attacking what he called woke workplace culture, told objecting employees to leave, and stepped down as CEO later that year while staying on as chairman. He has since been among the loudest critics of California's proposed billionaire wealth tax, which he called "a 5% theft of unrealized gains." Kraken and the [[Winklevoss Twins]] seeded the [[Digital Freedom Fund]], the super PAC most openly aligned with Trump's wing of the pro-crypto money network. That network also includes [[Fairshake PAC]]. ## From defendant to insider - **2023.** Kraken paid $30 million to settle SEC charges over its staking program. Later that year the SEC sued it for operating as an unregistered exchange. - **2025.** The SEC under Trump dropped the exchange case in March. In the same month Kraken announced a **$1.5 billion acquisition of NinjaTrader**, giving it a U.S. futures business. - **March 4, 2026.** Kraken Financial, its Wyoming-chartered bank arm, received a **Federal Reserve master account**, the first crypto firm to get direct access to the Fed's payment rails. Senator [[Cynthia Lummis]] announced it. ## The IPO that stalled Kraken raised $800 million at a **$20 billion valuation** in November 2025 and filed confidentially for an IPO. As bitcoin fell from about $110,000 to the mid-$70,000s, the company reportedly froze the plan in March 2026. In April, co-CEO Sethi confirmed the confidential filing was still active. Deutsche Börse's $200 million investment for a 1.5% stake that spring implied a valuation of about **$13 billion**, a third below the November mark. The gap between the political wins and the market price is the story: the [[GENIUS Act]]-era legitimacy arrived just as the market fell. ## See also - [[Cryptocurrency Sector]] · [[Cryptocurrency Ecosystem]] · [[Cryptocurrency Regulation Timeline]] · [[Crypto-Political Machine News Log]] - [[Gemini]] · [[Galaxy Digital]] · [[Digital Freedom Fund]] · [[Fairshake PAC]]