Kraken CEO Jesse Powell is stepping down

Kraken CEO Jesse Powell is stepping down and will be replaced by chief operating officer David Ripley, the company announced Wednesday.

Powell, who co-founded Kraken in 2011, will become the crypto marketplace’s board chairman. Ripley will take over after Kraken finds a new COO.

Ripley’s leadership and experience “give me great confidence that he’s the ideal successor and the best person to lead Kraken through its next era of growth,” Powell said in a blog post.

He also said that he will be “spending more of my time on the company’s products, user experience and broader industry advocacy.”

Ripley, who joined Kraken through its 2016 acquisition of Glidera, is credited with growing Kraken from 50 to 3,000 employees.

Powell is giving up the CEO post at a critical time when the crypto industry is still reeling from a major downturn that wiped out about $2 trillion in value.

Kraken has managed to weather the storm like other major crypto players, FTX, Binance and Ripple, that have continued expanding, even as rivals like Coinbase pulled back on growth plans.

But Kraken’s workplace culture came under scrutiny after a New York Times report based on leaked Slack messages and employee interviews accused Powell of making insensitive comments on gender and race, sparking heated conversations within Kraken. Powell defended the company’s culture and policies in an interview with Protocol.

Kraken began as a bitcoin exchange before emerging as one of crypto’s biggest marketplaces. Kraken is currently the fourth-largest crypto exchange, after Binance, FTX and Coinbase, according to CoinMarketCap.