Kraken CEO Jesse Powell explained on Friday why his exchange decided to list Terra 2.0 despite the collapse of the original chain. Given Terra’s loss of credibility over the past month, many in the crypto community cast doubt on the move.
Listing is not supported
When asked about the listing, Powell Explained That he went ahead with it mainly because of “customer demand”. He argued that exchanges like Kraken should remain competitive by ensuring that all major tokens can be traded in one place.
“1Coin not supporting the demand of the people could cost you the whole account,” he said. “Listing is not an endorsement.”
Kraken was one of several exchanges to announce listings for Terra 2.0 on the day of its airdrop. Other major platforms include Binance, KuCoin, FTX and Bitfinex, among many smaller options.
Some found the move more surprising to come from Powell, however, who has in the past shown strong agreement with the bitcoin community on ethical issues. Around Terra, many bitcoiners such as Coinmetrics co-founder Nick Carter were fiercely critical of its stablecoin model before and after its collapse.
Carter was the first Question Powell about this move. Following Powell’s response, MIM podcast host Brad Mills continued the discussion, claiming that Powell’s listing “eroded reputation with bitcoiners.”
Powell justified the move by claiming to be as “asset agnostic” as possible, helping to facilitate price discovery in the market rather than “winners and losers”.
However, he noted that Kraken has a “bar” for listing crypto that less than 2% of its tokens successfully pass. Terra 2.0 meets its threshold, as it does not believe it has the same security flaws as the first version.
“I think this would be a good topic for an intelligence report,” he said.
Powell’s Past Stance
Powell sided with bitcoiners in his decision not to list BSV – a bitcoin fork created by a man who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto. A man named Craig Wright has launched several lawsuits against people who denied his identity as the creator of bitcoin.
Powell Told They were sued in 2020 for not naming BSV as “BTC” on Kraken, but opting to keep it delisted anyway.
The CEO also supported the bitcoin community movement to fund the Canadian independence convoy protests in February. He warned donors at the time to remove their coins from their exchange, or else they would be forced to freeze their accounts by the Canadian government.
In April, the Kraken Lightning Network became one of the first major crypto exchanges to support bitcoin transactions, enabling faster and cheaper deposits and withdrawals.
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