Kraken CEO defends listing LUNA 2.0: ‘Bitcoin traders don't pay the bills’

cointelegraph.com:

The crypto winter has emotions running high. Kraken CEO Jesse Powell came under fire for his defense of listing the new LUNA, also known as LUNA 2.0, which seeks to bring the original LUNA — now known as Luna Classic (LUNC) — and TerraUSD — now known as TerraUSD Classic (USTC) — back from the dead.

Respected names in the crypto industry such as Nic Carter of Castle Ventures spoke out against the decision, while in a separate tweet thread, Powell lashed out at short-seller Jim Chanos, who had built a large short against Coinbase, Kraken’s biggest competitor.

Carter simply tweeted “why” to the official Kraken Twitter account that announced the listing of the new LUNA.

Client demand. There’s a weird dynamic with exchanges. Switching cost is low and people tend to want to do everything all in one place for capital efficiency/synergies/convenience. Not supporting 1 coin people demand could cost you the entire account. Listing isn’t an endorsement

The world’s fourth-largest crypto exchange, Kraken lists over 160 cryptocurrencies. The list grows every month, from Bitcoin (BTC) to Filecoin (FIL) to the second iteration of LUNA, which currently sits 164th on its price index.

The first Terra collapse wiped out circa $50 billion, causing suicide hotlines to be pinned to the Terra subreddit, while legal documents reveal Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon liquidated two branches and an entire company days before the crash.

Related: Exchanges back ‘Terra 2.0 revival plan’ via airdrops, listing, buyback and burning

The project was then hard-forked and relaunched with little to no recompense for impoverished investors. An airdrop, for example, did not go how the developers intended, as tokens were unevenly distributed. The new LUNA has since