RIT Capital Partners, a British investment trust managed by J. Rothschild Capital Management Limited, has acquired a stake in the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken.
news and investor note.
This is a consequence of the Coinbase IPO.
Kraken CEO Jesse Powell said this is being delayed in order to evaluate how Coinbase's IPO performs. Kraken has a strong balance sheet and the company is not in a rush to raise capital.Jesse said “The reason to do it would just be to bring on some more strategic investors who can help us with geographic expansion and growth.”
The small matter of regulatory oversight was not mentioned.
I have always thought that the easiest way to control the cryptospace is to control the gateways - the exchanges, and especially those that exchange to fiat.
What better way to create a regulatory framework when both parties are ultimately controlled by the same people?
This leads us to the question about the status and usefulness of exchanges. What are they really for? In an age of algorithmic price-discovery mechanisms, what is one actually buying to be on an exchange?