Kraken founder Jesse Powell under fire again over XRP hate claims amid $15B IPO move

Kraken founder Jesse Powell is once again at the center of controversy — this time facing renewed XRP hate claims, with critics accusing him of harboring long-standing disdain for the cryptocurrency closely tied to Ripple.

The drama reignited after Ripple CTO David Schwartz fired back at critics on social media who accused Powell of being biased against XRP, calling such claims oversimplified and misleading.

The controversy unfolded following a casual Twitter poll about IPOs posted by Schwartz earlier this week.

But what began as light community engagement quickly turned contentious when a user accused Kraken founder Jesse Powell of hating XRP — a claim Ripple’s tech boss strongly disputed.

“I’ve always believed Jesse’s position was more about caution than hate,” Schwartz responded. “It’s not as black and white as people think.”

XRP hate claims: Legal risks, not personal grudges

According to Schwartz, the relationship between Kraken founder Jesse Powell and XRP is far more nuanced. Historical analysis of Powell’s public commentary supports this view.

Dating back to the early days of Ripple Labs (then OpenCoin), Powell was one of the few exchange executives warning about XRP’s murky legal standing.

In a widely cited thread from 2020, Powell stated that listing XRP on Kraken had always posed an “asymmetrical risk” — where downside exposure far outweighed potential benefits.

“If XRP were later deemed a security, we could be held liable — even if we listed it in good faith,” Kraken founder Jesse Powell wrote at the time. “That’s not a risk any prudent exchange can ignore.”

Kraken’s U.S. Delisting and business calculus

That caution culminated in Kraken’s 2021 decision to suspend XRP trading for U.S. users following the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple.

Again, Powell emphasized that it was a legal and business decision — not a personal vendetta.

“We’re not anti-XRP. We’re anti-unregistered securities risk,” Powell clarified. “From a compliance and business perspective, this was the only responsible route.”

While some supporters saw this XRP hate claims as betrayal, others acknowledged the regulatory pressure Kraken and other exchanges faced at the time.

Schwartz’s recent defense of Kraken founder Jesse Powell aims to clarify those long-standing tensions.

According to the Ripple CTO, conflating legal prudence with personal hatred does a disservice to the entire crypto community.

“It’s easy to attack centralized decisions, but these exchanges are navigating treacherous waters,” Schwartz noted. “Let’s not mistake caution for hostility.”

IPO timing adds fuel to the fire

What’s particularly notable is the timing of this renewed debate. Kraken founder Jesse Powell is steering the exchange through one of its most ambitious periods yet — a rumored $15 billion IPO plan.

According to Bloomberg, Kraken is in the process of raising $100 million in late-stage funding to revive IPO discussions that had previously been shelved after Coinbase’s rocky market debut.

The funding round is expected to close by year-end, with a formal listing potentially on the horizon in early 2026.

If successful, Kraken would become the second major U.S. crypto exchange to go public — a milestone that invites heightened scrutiny, especially regarding its treatment of tokens like XRP.

Community still divided

Despite Schwartz’s intervention, the crypto community remains divided over Kraken founder Jesse Powell and his past XRP decisions.

While some applaud his caution and foresight, others view Kraken’s delisting as a betrayal of decentralization ideals.

Prominent crypto analyst Adam Cochran weighed in on the matter, stating:

“Powell was ahead of the curve. It wasn’t about hating XRP — it was about surviving regulation. And guess what? Kraken did.”

Still, XRP loyalists like “Digital Asset Investor” on X (formerly Twitter) argue that Powell’s tone over the years reveals deeper bias. “You can be cautious and respectful. Jesse was neither,” the user posted.

In the volatile world of crypto, perception often eclipses nuance. But as Kraken founder Jesse Powell leads his company toward a landmark IPO, his historical caution on XRP is being revisited in a new light — not as hate or because of the XRP hate claims, but as strategic foresight.

With Ripple’s ongoing battle against the SEC far from over, and Kraken’s IPO dreams heating up, this debate is unlikely to disappear anytime soon.