Kraken co-CEO Dave Ripley said Bitcoin’s return above $80,000 led him to view the preceding downturn as its bear market, suggesting it may have been the mildest in Bitcoin’s history, according to a ChainCatcher report published on November 9, 2026.
Ripley’s interpretation of the cycle
Speaking with host Spencer Nichols on the Bitcoin Magazine Podcast, Ripley discussed why the current cycle did not feel like a bear market and described how retail and institutional clients were approaching Bitcoin.
His characterization was an interpretation of the market cycle, not confirmation of a future price path. The brief ChainCatcher report did not provide a price target or a timeline for further gains.
Institutional adoption and payments
The conversation also covered Bitcoin’s positioning as institutional digital gold, banks’ earlier preference for blockchain rather than Bitcoin, and Ripley’s view that stablecoins demonstrate the viability of permissionless models and open the door to Bitcoin payments.
Other topics included Kraken’s reasons for acquiring a European bank, revenue diversification ahead of an IPO, progress with tokenized equities through xStocks, AI agents and crypto payments, and how AI was changing Kraken’s operations.
Original source: ChainCatcher, published November 9, 2026, at 22:41:02 (UTC+8). The source did not specify the podcast recording date.
