Former Kraken chief executive Jesse Powell thinks the mainstream media shares some of the blame for the FTX fiasco that rocked the crypto world last week.
Powell took aim at a New York Times article about FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried that was published on Monday.
The former CEO accuses the paper of being too sympathetic to Bankman-Fried while attacking others in the industry.
“The [mainstream media] needs to take accountability for its role in contributing to the legitimization and high status of this insolvent Ponzi. Without the media’s backing and the endless puff pieces, victims would not have been so trusting with their savings. Even now, they downplay the story.
At the same time, they were pumping the FTX scam, they were writing defamatory gossip pieces about industry stalwarts, driving their audiences away from safe, reliable and proven venues. It’s too generous to call these people clowns. They betray their duty.”
Powell himself was the target of an unfavorable New York Times piece this summer. The paper described Kraken as being embroiled in a “corporate culture war stoked by [Powell].”
Powell said at the time that the controversy was a result of 20 people out of 3,200 Kraken employees who were unhappy, “triggered” and sapping the productivity of other employees at the exchange.
Powell stepped down from his post as Kraken CEO in September.
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