Dave Ripley, the incoming chief executive officer (CEO) of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, said the company has no plans to delist crypto assets allegedly classified as securities by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Reuters reported Friday.
Ripley, the current chief operating officer at the exchange, was appointed the new CEO after Jesse Powell, the outspoken and often controversial head of the company, stepped down on Wednesday.
Kraken Has No Plans to Register With the SEC as an Exchange
The incoming chief revealed that the company has no intention of registering with the Commission as a digital asset service provider despite warnings from the SEC chairman Gary Gensler, asking crypto exchanges to register.
Ripley said the company sees no reason to comply with the SEC’s request because it does not offer securities services and has no intention of listing tokens labeled as securities on the platform.
“There are not any tokens out there that are securities that we’re interested in listing. There could be some new tokens out there that become interesting and also happen to simultaneously be security, so in that case, we would potentially be interested in that path,” he said.
Rather than registering with the market regulator, Kraken’s COO said the exchange would consider acquisitions that aim to improve its product and tech portfolios as it intends to broaden its services across the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) sector. The firm plans to launch a new platform seeking to offer banking services to institutional investors.
SEC Investigates Coinbase For Securities Token Listings
In its latest effort to bring digital assets under a federal overhaul, the Commission is currently investigating another crypto exchange Coinbase for securities law violations and listing several security tokens on its platform.
The investigation aims to determine how Coinbase classifies and lists its tokens and staking programs, among others.
Earlier this month, the SEC urged all crypto companies operating as exchanges, broker-dealers, clearing agents, or custodians to register in its jurisdiction just like other market intermediaries.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress recently passed legislation that identified most cryptocurrencies as commodities, not securities. The new rule, dubbed Responsible Financial Innovation ACT, gives the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) the power to regulate cryptocurrencies rather than the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Source: https://coinfomania.com/kraken-new-ceo-no-plans-to-delist-tokens/