Kraken Appoints Mike Davidson as Its New Vice President of Design

Kraken, a US-based cryptocurrency exchange, announced on Tuesday that it had hired Mike Davidson as Vice President of Design. According to the company, Davidson will arrive at the exchange to bolster client experiences across the full suite of products offered nowadays.

Prior to joining Kraken, Davidson worked for over 20 years in major companies such as ESPN, Disney, and Twitter. In addition, he is known for being the founder of Newsvine, which NBC News later acquired. “Mike’s strong track record of design leadership will have a huge impact at Kraken as we continue to grow into new markets,” Jeremy Welch, Kraken’s Chief Product Officer, commented on the appointment.

The new Vice President of Design is set to work together with the Marketing, Product, and Engineering departments of Kraken to complement them in the ongoing processes held within the crypto exchange. “So much of designing is about learning, which for me means immersing myself in environments that are completely new. When I look at cryptocurrencies, I see a paradigm shift, not only financially but culturally. I see a future where all assets — physical or digital — are instantly tokenizeable and tradeable, without having to deal with the fee-charging middlemen of the last century,” Davidson stated.

Kraken pointed out in the announcement that the rise in popularity in assets such as NFTs, DAOs, and the blockchain’s integration across several industries instates them to meet clients’ demands by expanding the team and onboarding highly-experienced experts.

Seeking European Licenses

In August, Jesse Powell, CEO of Kraken, revealed that the crypto exchange is attempting to gain a European regulatory license and is planning to achieve it by the end of this year. “We are working on a license in an EU country,” Powell commented at that time.

The San Francisco-headquartered exchange has started talks with multiple regulators on the continent. It has already shortlisted Malta, Luxembourg, or Ireland to be its European base, but it has not decided yet.