In fairness, Kraken is regulated and I suspect can't be involved in any of the crypto scams. I'd imagine they really hold deposits as they should etc.
So for them it's the fact that markets are down and people aren't punting crypto, rather than "we took the USD deposits, turned them into shit coins and we're insolvent" kind of thing.
Right: to be absolutely clear, I'm not accusing Kraken of anything untoward (at least, nothing more untoward than being involved in this whole industry).
The statement just came across as very roundabout: we all understand that the current downturn in cryptocurrency is driven in part by a decline in "easy money" from retail customers, which in turn is partially driven by a lot of that "easy money" outright evaporating from fraudulent schemes.
Ok, I just meant, when SBF comes out and says, "liquidity crunch, bank run", he means, he stole the money, or charitably, let someone steal it on his watch. Or even more charitably, invested it in an unacceptably stupid way.
For Kraken the slowdown is less business. Crypto is down, as are equity markets, and these are highly correlated (go figure - "inflation hedge").
I'm not even sure if FTX blow up itself is bad for them. Not only is a competitor out, but also people might appreciate a regulated crypto exchange.
So I think maybe "geopolitical" is not outrageously wrong a term to use here.
Didn't I read recently that Meta, Google, and all those companies are laying off people? Not going to talk about Twitter because that's a special case ;).
So for them it's the fact that markets are down and people aren't punting crypto, rather than "we took the USD deposits, turned them into shit coins and we're insolvent" kind of thing.
I think.