Marco Santori announced on Jan. 15, 2025, that he was stepping down as Kraken's chief legal officer after almost five years in the role, moving into an advisory position at the exchange1. “After five years as Kraken's Chief Legal Officer, I'm passing on the reins to a successor,” Santori wrote on X. He said he would "stay close as a senior advisor" and help build a global advisory council for the company.
Two of Kraken's 10 leadership moves on the record came in 2025
Leadership moves CryptoLately has verified at Kraken, by year
- 2025: 2
- 2022, 2023, 2024
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 5 |
| 2023 | 1 |
| 2024 | 2 |
| 2025 | 2 |
20 executive exits on the record in 2025
Executive exits CryptoLately has verified, by year; 2026 through Oct. 2, 2026
- 2025: 20
- 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2026
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 6 |
| 2020 | 1 |
| 2021 | 9 |
| 2022 | 9 |
| 2023 | 8 |
| 2024 | 11 |
| 2025 | 20 |
| 2026 | 27 |
The move
Santori posted the news himself rather than waiting on a company announcement, timestamped 18:25 UTC on Jan. 15, 20251. Bloomberg Law confirmed the departure on Jan. 15, 2025, reporting that “Kraken Chief Legal Officer Marco Santori is leaving the position after almost five years and moving into an advisory role at the crypto exchange”2. Santori told his own audience what the job had grown into under him. “During his tenure, Kraken's legal team increased to nearly 70 attorneys from four,” Bloomberg Law reported, citing his post.
Why announce an exit instead of waiting for a successor to be named? Santori framed the handoff as unfinished business rather than a clean break. “I'll stay close as a senior advisor. I'm going to help train up a successor and help to build a global advisory council for the company,” he wrote1. Bloomberg Law's report placed the move inside a wider shuffle, noting that "Kraken recently reshuffled its executive team" and "laid off staff" in the period around his departure2.
Kraken before and after
Santori had held the chief legal officer title since 2020, according to Kraken's own account of his successor's hiring3, a tenure that spanned the exchange's 2023 settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the SEC's later accusation that Kraken ran an unregistered broker-dealer and exchange2. Bloomberg Law described that regulatory relationship as "contentious" over the prior few years. Santori closed his post by crediting the team he was leaving behind rather than naming what came next for himself. “I couldn't be more proud of what we've achieved together as a team and I look forward to the next era of @krakenfx success,” he wrote1.
What came next
Kraken named Ben Gray, previously global general counsel at Paxos, as Santori's successor on Feb. 4, 2025, three weeks after the announcement3. Kraken's blog post confirmed the timeline directly: "Ben succeeds Marco Santori, who has been our CLO since 2020," crediting Santori with “building a world-class legal team, representing crypto on the global stage and tackling critical regulatory challenges” while he stayed on as an advisor. Gray reported to co-chief executives Arjun Sethi and David Ripley rather than to a single chief executive, Kraken's announcement said, reflecting a leadership structure the exchange had put in place by early 2025.
Sources
- Marco Santori, "My watch has ended," X, Jan. 15, 2025, https://x.com/msantoriESQ/status/1879595865431499000
- Olga Kharif, "Crypto Exchange Kraken Says Chief Legal Officer Santori Leaves," Bloomberg Law, Jan. 15, 2025, https://news.bloomberglaw.com/capital-markets/crypto-exchange-kraken-says-chief-legal-officer-santori-leaves?context=search&index=0
- Kraken, "Kraken welcomes Ben Gray as Chief Legal Officer," Feb. 4, 2025, https://blog.kraken.com/news/kraken-welcomes-ben-gray-as-chief-legal-officer