Kraken CEO calls QuadrigaCX case ‘a setback to adoption’

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Kraken’s CEO, Jesse Powell, has taken the lessons from the QuadrigaCX debacle to heart. In a recent interview with LongHash, he shared more of his thoughts on what happened with the failed Canadian cryptocurrency exchange, and what the industry needs to learn from the mess to improve.

Canadian authorities have taken the obvious cue to ramp up their cryptocurrency regulations to prevent a future exchange from spiraling. Powell believes the industry has to take responsibility first though. He told the outlet, “These cases reflect poorly on the entire space and are a setback to adoption. It’s up to the community to self-police and investigate these cases.”

Powell has already used his company to offer assistance to QuadrigaCX creditors. Kraken has previously offered a $100,000 reward for any information leading to discovery of cryptocurrencies lost by the shutdown exchange. He’s now explaining his motivations, and offering more help:

“We have the experts and a little work on our side can go a long way toward helping law enforcement. Kraken has thousands of mutual clients with QuadrigaCX and we would love to be able to help these people, and the rest of the creditors, recover as much as possible.”

That’s not all. To help customers avoid any more money than is necessary when the next exchange goes down, Powell is offering common sense advice. He’s recommending users only trade on reputable, proven exchanges, and only keep as little money as necessary on them, using hardware wallets for their storage purposes.

This isn’t the first time Powell has spoken specifically about QuadrigaCX. He previously criticized some of the tall tales coming out of the exchanges history, and openly speculated that co-founder Michael Patryn, who has an alleged past in money-laundering, could have helped the exchange in illegal activities.

Powell could be using this wild story as an opportunity to build up his own reputation, but all of his advice comes across well. The general lesson that the cryptocurrency industry needs to grow up and professionalize has been put forward previously by industry experts like Bitcoin Association Founding President Jimmy Nguyen. It’s an important mantra for the industry to realize global adoption, from end users and enterprises.