Crypto exchange Kraken sued by former trading desk manager for $900,000

Kraken, a popular cryptocurrency exchange based in the US, is facing a lawsuit from a former employee, Jonathan Silverman.

The former trading desk manager alleges that the exchange failed to pay him the promised commission and is demanding a $900,000 compensation for the $19 million in profits the trading desk generate during his tenure at the company.

The exchange is being sued by a former employee who alleges that the company failed to pay him for his three-month-long tenure at its trading desk.

The plaintiff, Jonathan Silverman, was hired back in April 2017 to manage Kraken's institutional sales and trading desk in New York.

The compensation Silverman requested is just over $7,000 less than the amount Kraken reportedly agreed to pay him in a settlement made after he left the company.

Aside from the payment he reportedly didn't receive, Silverman is also challenging Kraken's statement that the exchange has been out of New York since 2015.

While paying out a lump sum of $900,000 should be a major concern for Kraken, the exchange could face more dangerous consequences from Silverman's second claim.

Jesse Powell, the CEO and founder of Kraken, said last year that the exchange ceased offering its services to New York residents back in 2015.

The claims were made after Kraken chose not to respond to a voluntary information request from New York's Attorney General, and reiterated that it does not operate illegally in New York.

Silverman's lawsuit claims that Kraken had been "Misrepresenting to the public and government regulators that it was not operating in New York; when in reality, Kraken's OTC practice and OTC trading occurred almost exclusively in New York.".