Kraken CEO Plans Public Listing In A Year’s Time, Wants Elon Musk to Do More Study on Bitcoin Mining

During a recent interview with Bloomberg TV, Jesse Powell, the chief executive officer (CEO) of crypto exchange Kraken said that they are planning for a public listing in a year’s time. Without giving any specific valuations target, Powell said that the firm is “doing all the prep work” currently.

“We’re on a mission to bring crypto to the world, and our valuation hopefully will be a reflection of our success in achieving that mission,” said Powell. People familiar with the matter said that post the recent round of fundraising, Kraken’s valuations stood at $10 billion and could further go up to $20 billion.

Kraken is currently the world’s fifth-largest crypto exchange by trading volumes and serves more than 6 million clients in more than 190 countries. The crypto company has registered more signups in the first two months of this year than cumulative signups in 2020. With Coinbase Global (NASDAQ: COIN) announcing its public listing on Nasdaq, more exchanges are willing to get listed on Wall Street.

Powell Blames “Swing Traders” for the Market Rout

Since the Bitcoin sell-off last month in May, the trading volumes at Kraken have gone south. Powell blames “swing traders,” or new players doing momentum-based trading for the recent market rout. However, he adds that strong players will continue to accumulate citing MicroStrategy’s recent move.

“Guys that have been holding for a long time continue to accumulate. I’ve said one Bitcoin, one Lambo by the end of the year. It may be a Lambo with fewer options or a smaller engine at this point, but I think we’re still looking at very lofty price targets,” he added.

Interestingly, Powell touched down on the most recent topic of Bitcoin mining and the shift towards green energy. Calling out billionaire Elon Musk, who recently raised severe concerns on Bitcoin’s energy consumption, Powell said that the Tesla chief should rather do more study on Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is “a lot greener than people give it credit for. I don’t know how long Elon has been studying this, but I think he’s got some more studying to do on this topic,” Powell added.