Jesse Powell: How Kraken Accelerates Cryptocurrency Adoption (#313)

As the cryptocurrency space has grown, exchanges have become the dominant juggernauts of the industry. One of the earliest and most reputable exchanges is Kraken. From the company's formation in 2011, Kraken has grown to 4m users and almost 1,000 employees.
We are joined by Kraken Founder and CEO Jesse Powell. We dove into the history of Kraken, their values and the vision that's driving them.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- How selling virtual goods for games led Jesse to discover Bitcoin
- Why cryptocurrencies will lead to a better financial system
- How Kraken launched and ended up getting strong traction in Europe
- The challenges and changes of the regulatory environment
- His thoughts on DeFi and decentralized exchanges
- Kraken's approach to listing assets on the exchange
- How to create a strong culture in a distributed company
- His vision for Kraken to become a general trading and investment platform

Links mentioned in this episode:
- Kraken: https://bit.ly/34Vnigd
- How to Grow A Decacorn | Crypto Podcast | Kraken: https://bit.ly/2CANUai
- How to Trade Crypto On Kraken: https://bit.ly/2NIjXM4
- Kraken on Wikipedia: https://bit.ly/32EkVNn
- Kraken Exchange Twitter: https://bit.ly/2NIX5fp
- Jesse Powell Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Kk2Xto

Sponsors:
- Cosmos: Change the future of finance at the SF Blockchain Week Defi Hackathon – $50,000 prize pool for winning teams - https://epicenter.rocks/sfcosmos
- Trail of Bits: Trust the team at the forefront of blockchain security research - https://trailofbits.com

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture & Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/313