Dave Ripley: Are the SEC Overreaching with its Approach to Crypto? Should Gensler Step Down? | E1108

Do you feel targeted by the SEC?

I think the approach is completely flawed.

Dave Ripley is the CEO of Kraken, one of the OG crypto exchanges. He explains the biggest problem with crypto regulators in the US and addresses some of the most common crypto misconceptions.

The right approach is what we see everywhere, what we see in Canada, in Europe where their parliament or legislatures work to put in place proper laws, that companies come in and actually have a path to register and license and provide services.

What do you think are some of the top myths that are wrong?

Well, there's many. Probably the one that's-

Over time I've learned to be brutally honest and- Dave, I am so excited for this. First off, I wanna say a huge thank you for joining me today.

Yeah, absolutely. Great to be here with you, Harry.

Now, I wanna break kind of the context part into two different parts. One is like what was your first engagement with crypto and how did you first make your way into the world of crypto?

So about 10 years for me. Just over actually. Um, at the time I learned about crypto, I was at, uh, Boston Consulting Group, large strategy consulting firm, and, um, I was interested to get back to the tech industry. Um, also kinda had in the front and back of my mind, you know, potentially founding a company. Individual who I learned, uh, you know, learned about Bitcoin from happened to end up being my co-founder. Um, so that's actually how I initially learned about it, and then just, you know, like many others, went down that rabbit hole. You know, I learned first about the tech and then all of a sudden I, I, you know, was like, "Wow, that's super interesting." Then the economic side, the societal side, the government piece, all these different, uh, aspects of crypto and, and spent frankly months kinda going down the rabbit hole learning about, uh, crypto in every which way. Also kind of like, um, going through the process I think a lot of us do of like learning about crypto and saying, "Hey, this can't work because X," and then kinda go research it and read more about it and then get to the point where it's like, "Well, actually maybe this actually would, would work for XYZ reason." So, super excited about it. It definitely aligns with like kinda my view on, you know, economic freedom and, uh, these pieces, and so just got incredibly excited about it.

Okay, so we dive down the rabbit hole. How does Kraken come to be then and, and what does that entry point look like there?

You know, right in 2013, um, I, uh, founded a company, Glydara, and that was a, you know, crypto company. We basically, uh, provided, um, some tools, APIs to let all the Bitcoin wallets at the time add Bitcoin buying and selling into their apps. Kraken was one of our partners. We used them on the backend for liquidity 'cause they had a, you know, nice, big, full proper exchange that, that provided such things. So, um, knew some of the Kraken team, including, uh, Jesse from that angle. Um, it was 2016. We kinda started discussing about what's next for, uh, for Glydara, what's our next step, another fundraise. You know, we had already done one not, you know, I don't know, a year plus, uh, previous to that timeframe. And we talked, uh, about the potential for, you know, acquisition, and so Kraken acquired, uh, my company. It was small at the time, Glydara, and I joined, uh, Kraken following, uh, following that acquisition.