Kraken crypto exchange CEO fires back at requests to freeze Russian crypto: “Step 1 would be to freeze all U.S. accounts” for unjustly attacking and provoking violence around the world

On Tuesday, we wrote about Coinbase and Binance after two of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges rejected the calls to ban Russian users from their platforms so as to put more economic pressure on Moscow to withdraw its troops from Ukraine.

On February 27, Ukraine’s vice prime minister called on major cryptocurrency exchanges yesterday to block all Russian user accounts. “It’s crucial to freeze not only the addresses linked to Russian and Belarusian politicians, but also to sabotage ordinary users,” Mykhailo Fedorov, who is also Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, said in a tweet on Sunday.

I'm asking all major crypto exchanges to block addresses of Russian users.

It's crucial to freeze not only the addresses linked to Russian and Belarusian politicians, but also to sabotage ordinary users.

— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) February 27, 2022

In response to the request, a Binance spokesperson said, “We are not going to unilaterally freeze millions of innocent users’ accounts. Crypto is meant to provide greater financial freedom for people across the globe. To unilaterally decide to ban people’s access to their crypto would fly in the face of the reason why crypto exists.”

However, the crypto exchange that’s really making the headlines is Kraken, a San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange startup that provides spot and futures trading between Bitcoin, Ethereum, and over 40 other digital assets.

In response to calls for his company to freeze the crypto assets of Russians amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell said that while he has “deep respect” for the people of Ukraine, he believes cryptocurrency should enforce individualism, rather than a nationalistic alliance to a particular country.

In a series of posts on Twitter, Powell rejected the calls, adding that he “understands the rationale for this request but, despite my deep respect for the Ukrainian people, @krakenfx cannot freeze the accounts of our Russian clients without a legal requirement to do so.”

“Besides, if we were going to voluntarily freeze financial accounts of residents of countries unjustly attacking and provoking violence around the world, step 1 would be to freeze all U.S. accounts,” Powell wrote on Twitter. “As a practical matter, that’s not really a viable business option for us.”

5/6 Sometimes the hardest thing about having power is knowing when not to use it. Our mission is better served by focusing on individual needs above those of any government or political faction. The People's Money is an exit strategy for humans, a weapon for peace, not for war.

— Jesse Powell (@jespow) February 28, 2022

Towards the of his Twitter thread, Powell also took a jab at the United States saying that ‘Step 1 would be to freeze all U.S. accounts’

“Besides, if we were going to voluntarily freeze financial accounts of residents of countries unjustly attacking and provoking violence around the world, step 1 would be to freeze all U.S. accounts,” Powell wrote on Twitter. “As a practical matter, that’s not really a viable business option for us.”

https://twitter.com/jespow/status/1498112746646241281

Founded in 2011 by Jesse Powell, Kraken is a marketplace for digital assets where buyers, sellers, traders, and speculators come together to exchange cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple against national currencies like USD, EUR, CAD, and JPY. The startup currently has over 7 million clients.