It does not plan to register with the SEC

The newly appointed CEO of crypto exchange Kraken has stated that he has no plans to register the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or remove any tokens that have been designated as securities by the SEC.

At Reuters message on Thursday, incoming CEO Dave Ripley said he saw no reason to register with the SEC as an exchange because it does not offer securities.

“There are no tokens that are securities that we are interested in listing,” he said.

However, he didn’t completely rule out a list of security tokens, noting that “there could be some new token that becomes interesting and also happens to be a security, in which case we would potentially be interested in going down that path.”

Dave Ripley set to succeed Jesse Powell as CEO after Kraken co-founder steps down resign on September 21 after 11 years in the top job, citing the company’s tremendous growth and the heavy burden of overseeing it all.

In a company statement notifying following the leadership change, Ripley said his future goals were “closely aligned” with Powell’s, and also noted that Powell plans to “remain very involved in the company.”

Ripley’s statements about crypto assets appear to be in direct contradiction to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, who recently made his thoughts very clear about the state of crypto exchanges and tokens.

In the Senate Banking Committee on September 15, Gensler he reiterated his position that most cryptocurrencies are securities, and many intermediaries such as exchanges, broker-dealers and those with depository functions deal in securities and should be registered with the SEC “in some capacity”.

“Cryptocurrency brokers may one day be required to register with both the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC),” and dual registrants already exist.

Earlier this year, the SEC opened an investigation into Coinbase for allegedly trading in unregistered securities.

In time, whenMichael Bacina, an Australian digital asset lawyer with Piper Alderman, told Cointelegraph that the case could have a “serious and chilling impact” on crypto exchanges and token projects, “whether or not the ultimate finding is that tokens are securities.”

Gensler has been the subject of heavy criticism this year for both his agency approach to cryptocurrency regulation and for his lack of action against the “big fish” crypto exchanges.

In the past, Kraken has come under fire from the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for allegedly allows users based in Iran and other countries to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, which could violate US sanctions.