Kraken shuts down global headquarters as 'San Francisco is not safe'

Published at: April 8, 2022

The Golden City is losing its shine as one of the largest United States-based cryptocurrency exchanges closes its San Francisco-based headquarters. 

Kraken CEO, Jesse Powell retweeted that Kraken will close its global headquarters on 548 Market Street, in the center of San Francisco. In the retweet shared by a San Francisco-based political commentator, Richie Greenberg, the decision cites that:

“We shut down Kraken’s global headquarters on Market Street in San Francisco after numerous employees were attacked, harassed and robbed on their way to and from the office.”

Cointelegraph reached out to the Kraken team for comment and will update if and when they reply. 

A poor advertisement for living in California’s financial center, the tweet also states that “San Francisco is not safe,” and crime is “dramatically underreported.”

BREAKING: KRAKEN CEO Jesse Powell @jespow today issued a statement regarding rampant crime in San Francisco and the failures of DA @chesaboudin . pic.twitter.com/7gx7PldQM0

— Richie Greenberg (@richieSF2016) April 7, 2022

U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will also close its San Francisco headquarters in 2022, however, no mention of crime or homelessness was made. Instead, Coinbase followed the lead of its competitor Binance in becoming a fully remote, global company.

The Twitter community was quick to respond to the Kraken news, sharing dark anecdotes of working in San Francisco.

I worked at Market St for few months, it is crazy, it turns into skid row after 6pm. I'm from Europe and never seen anything like it. Still have flashbacks of the things I witnessed. Just tried to look away and not get stabbed. Remember walking in the smell of skunk and pee.

— Markus (@markustallinn) April 7, 2022

The living situation is so dire that rhere are applications that track human waste around San Francisco, Snap Crap is among the most popular. The applications help San Franciscans navigate the city without puting their foot in it.

The Twitter and Reddit community comments shone a light on how soaring rental prices have made homelessness more common, while crime is “rampant.” The average rent is now roughly $3,000 a month, while the San Francisco Chronicle estimates that there are more than 18,000 homeless people in the city.

Related: Bolt to enable Bitcoin and NFT access via Wyre acquisition

A report in 2020 revealed that San Francisco and the surrounding zone, the Bay Area, boasted the highest concentrations of crypto investments. In light of Kraken’s decision, and the social crises in San Francisco, the hold on crypto and the future of finance may falter.

Other US cities and states have made clear their intentions to attract crypto capital: Texas, for example, hosts pro-Bitcoin Senator Ted Cruz,  (BTC) while Web3 and crypto payments have been lauded by the mayor of Austin.

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