After Marco, Another Kraken Lawyer Michael O’Connor Departs From the Exchange

Kraken:- Since the beginning of this year, the leading crypto exchange Kraken has been witnessing a major reshuffle in its legal team. In a latest instance, its litigation had Michael Ono announced his move from the exchange after 6 years of tenure.

In a recent X post, Michael announced that “he is no longer leading the litigation at the exchange” and “hinted at looking forward to new horizons.”

Interestingly, O’Connor’s departure follows a recent round of senior legal changes at Kraken, including the stepping down of former chief legal officer Marco Santori to join Pantera Capitaal earlier this year. The exchange has had then subsequently appointed Benjamin Gray as the company’s new chief legal officer.

The moves also indicates a rapid reshaping of Kraken’s in-house legal bench at a moment when the regulatory environment around crypto is gaining momentum around the world.

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Kraken’s Litigation Head Departs – What it Means

As litigation lead O’Connor functioned as Kraken’s chief courtroom strategist and litigation project manager.  He has been Kraken’s principal litigator in the company’s fight with the SEC and a vocal critic of former SEC Chariman Gensler.

During SEC’s civil enforcement suit against Kraken in 2024, he had condemned the SEC’s approach as an attempt to “avoid discovery” into what he described as the agency’s flawed and inconsistent policies.

He had called on Gensler arguing, “Gary knows his days are numbered, at 75 to be precise. Nonetheless, he continues to double down on his failed policies, now in express defiance of the American people. How dare he.”

Last night, while Americans exercised their sovereign right to choose their political future, Gensler’s deputies at the SEC filed a motion seeking judgment in Kraken’s case on defenses like fair notice and the major questions doctrine. This motion transparently attempts to avoid…

— Michael O’Connor (@JDMikeJ) November 6, 2024

As per his updated Linkedin status, Michael has now joined as Chief Operating Officer of Web3 cyberintelligence firm – Cloudburst Technologies. As COE, he is set to drive the operations of firm whose AlphaSignal monitoring software aims to help regulators, market makers, and others detect and avoid becoming ensnared in a crypto price manipulation event.

The firm provides a clear view into which actors are coordinating trading activities on Telegram and other “off-chain” chat platforms.

Clear Regulatory Developments

This development in a leading crypto exchange’s legal team comes as the industry is witnessing clear regulatory developments. In US, the stablecoin law GENIUS Act has been signed and is being implemented. There are also clear regulatory guidance and market practice around crypto ETPs. The in-kind creation/redemption for crypto ETPs has been approved/permitted, set to reduc a structural friction for institutional participation in ETP markets.

In EU, the MiCA rules are driving market access decisions for major exchanges with Kraken going live across all 30 EEA countries on Tuesday. The move comes as the crypto Exchange continues to expand. Recently, it integrated PayPal as an option for deposits for its users and rolled out derivates exchange in the US.

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