Kraken co-CEO David Ripley: traditional firms will offer Bitcoin services

Ripley predicts nearly all legacy financial companies will soon provide crypto to their customers, calling it 'a big story of 2026.'

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Add us on Google by Editorial Team Jun. 9, 2026

David Ripley, who co-leads Kraken alongside Arjun Sethi, told attendees at the Axios AM Live event in Washington, D.C. that nearly all traditional financial services companies will offer cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum to their customers. He characterized this convergence as “a big story of 2026.”

From crypto-native to crypto-everywhere

Ripley’s framing positions Kraken not as a competitor to traditional firms, but as their infrastructure provider. Rather than fighting JPMorgan or Fidelity for retail customers, Kraken wants to be the engine under their hood.

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This strategy crystallized in June 2025 when Kraken launched Kraken Prime, a comprehensive trading, custody, and financing solution built specifically for institutional clients. The product is designed to give banks and asset managers the plumbing they need to offer crypto without building everything from scratch.

Kraken’s evolution under Ripley

Kraken was founded in 2011 by Jesse Powell, making it one of the longest-running crypto exchanges in the US. Ripley stepped into the CEO role in 2023, and since October 2024, he’s shared it with Sethi in a co-CEO arrangement.

Under Ripley’s leadership, Kraken obtained a Wyoming Special Purpose Depository Institution charter, giving it a banking-adjacent regulatory status. Ripley has been explicit about Kraken’s role as a product and infrastructure provider for legacy finance rather than a direct-to-consumer competitor.

Why this matters for investors

There are real risks worth watching. When traditional finance fully embraces crypto, it also brings traditional finance’s problems along for the ride. Concentration risk, counterparty exposure, and the potential for systemic contagion all become more relevant when major banks hold significant crypto positions or provide crypto services to millions of clients.

There’s also the competitive question for existing crypto companies. Kraken’s bet on being an infrastructure provider requires those traditional firms to actually choose Kraken over building in-house or partnering with competitors like Coinbase Institutional.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.