Jesse Powell is plenty on his plate. He is helping the Crypto industry develop new influence in Washington, DC, and Crypto Exchange, which was founded in 2011, is set to be released next year. But when he pulls up a chair at a San Francisco coffee shop, Powell’s number one heart is neither politics nor business. It’s real estate. He wants to tell locals about the gorgeous white tower known as the “Sussie Building” built in the 1920s.
“It’s just around the corner, I can show you that,” Powell says enthusiastically. It waves his arms towards the 12-storey Pacific Heights Building, offering gorgeous views of Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay.
Powell offers all cash for the 9th floor apartment, but some owners of the cooperative building block the sale. They have not publicly explained why, but it is a safe bet that their reasons are based on Powell’s identification. He is a longtime Bitcoin advocate who loves to share political views on abominable social media by many in this famous liberal city.
His fight with Powell and the owner of the cooperative he is currently suing is a suitable symbol for the entire crypto industry for now. Despite their inflated wealth and new political influence, crypto leaders still struggle for the respect that bankers and other financial professionals have long enjoyed. And even if he pushes him to become part of the mainstream, Powell is also a bridge to the past of code.
“I think Trump is the best candidate we could have come up with. He’s keeping his promise to code,” Powell said.
Many may share his opinion, but you won’t find many of you in this upscale San Francisco coffee shop where other patrons enjoy oatmeal lattes and often join in a common dog. In this setting, right-wing political views are as welcome as the Prius of the Sturgis biker rally.
Powell also expressed conservative views on social media, where he published a polished broadside on the merits of Day and women who are brainwashed by liberal doctrines. But in reality, he is spoken politely and kindly. In fact, he is the kind of person who can make an ideal neighbor. As for his current real estate plight, Powell’s decision to appeal to his opinion to be his collaborator is unlikely to improve his opinion. However, he claims he had no choice after being unfairly black balls.
Powell points out that despite offering four reference letters along with his all-cash offer, cooperative members have completely refused to talk to him, and even refused to speak to him. He believes that the only explanation is his political views and his work in code. That’s a reasonable conclusion, especially considering that the owners of the building’s penthouse are large Democratic fundraisers who hosted Kamala Harris, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton. For Powell, he is a victim of discrimination.
Powell’s lawsuit against the cooperative cites violations of the federal Fair Housing Act and California’s civil rights law. I ask if he sees sarcasm in this. Powell isn’t.
“I fully agree with the existence of law because in housing there is a problem with the natural monopoly of the land,” says Powell. San Francisco says it once engaged in racist housing practices such as deficits and blockbusting, like other cities.
Powell claims discrimination based on his profession and his beliefs, not his race, but if his allegations are true, he may be based on his neighbour’s position “we don’t want your kind around here.”
Cooperative committee lawyers representing the building’s residents did not respond to requests for comment.
If Powell wins, his arrival at the cooperative would likely add a class element, not just political diversity. The founder of Kraken was not from old money, but grew up in the town of Hard Scrabble Central Valley, where families had to resort to welfare and food stamps. And while his lawsuit against the cooperative is very personal, it also reflects the preponderance of new political forces that are challenging years of progressive domination in the Bay Area.
When San Francisco is changing, so is the world of cryptography. As the president speaks of strategic Bitcoin reserves and crypto leaders roam the White House and Congress, it’s easy to forget how different the industry was in 2011 when Powell started Kraken.
At the time, no one outside Silicon Valley had heard of Bitcoin. And most of the people who dismissed it as a trend or a scam. And unlike sophisticated executives and lawyers who spoke today for code, the faces of the industry were dominated by dashing Argentine-like characters, such as Roger “Bitcoin Yes” Ver, and Casares from The Zapo, who promoted a secret vault to store digital coins under mountains in Switzerland.
Today, only a few figures from Powell and Bitcoin’s early days are active in the industry, while the rest enjoy modest retirements or, in some cases, serving prison sentences. Often they were replaced by executives from Wall Street companies like Washington, DC Insider, or BlackRock.
This change is also consistent with the crypto industry becoming part of political establishment in the US and elsewhere. This is far from the fundamental distrust of the government set out by Bitcoin creator Sato Shima Samoto. I ask Powell if the intellectual energy and idealism that marked the early days of Crypto have diminished, and he admits that, because much of Nakamoto’s original vision has passed.
“The original ideal was to bring Bitcoin to the world, and we have achieved much of it and started accessing people who are not suffering from the formal financial system,” says Powell, a philosophy major who lists Ain Rand among his (under no surprise) his favorite thinkers.
However, he adds that the quest to justify encryption is not over, warning that another change in the US government could once again smash the industry. Powell also points to Kraken’s struggle in places like the UK. There they complain about the strict warning regime for crypto customers.
Despite resigning as CEO in 2022, Powell is clearly part of the daily sudden battle that comes with running the company. At the time, he framed the decision as a desire to focus on other things in life, but now he acknowledges Kraken’s protection from the heat of regulation. In particular, he wanted to learn to be subject to criminal investigations and avoid disclosure requirements that complicate the company’s global licensing efforts.
His return to a practical role at Kraken, where he is chairman, can also be seen as caring for an unfinished business. According to a report from Bloomberg, this includes chasing longtime competitor Coinbase into the open market, with an IPO planned for early next year. And while Kraken’s fight with the US government is backing, the Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped this month’s lawsuit against the exchange – not Powell’s personal.
In 2023, as part of an investigation into a conflict between Powell and the arts nonprofit that he founded, the FBI stormed his home and seized his device. The exact circumstances of the attack remain vague, but Powell is sure he will be exonerated. This is an opportunity to regain access to the consequences that come as personal evidence and the sacrificed cryptography he has stored on his device. If that goes by and he wins the fight against the cooperative, Powell has some extra cash to adorn the walls of his new San Francisco apartment. Also, Crypto fans have another story that explains one of the industry’s early icons.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.
