Bitcoin Magazine Podcast · Nov 8, 2026 · 30m · 22m saved
With Dave Ripley, Co-CEO of Kraken
Bitcoin is back above $80,000, and Kraken's co-CEO thinks the bear market is already over. Dave Ripley, co-CEO of Kraken and its parent Payward, told Spencer Nichols of Bitcoin Magazine on the Bitcoin Magazine Podcast that the four-year cycle still says mid-cycle, but the drawdown never matched the depth of earlier ones.
"I honestly think... that was the bear market and we're actually kind of on our way out of it at this point, which... makes it the softest bear market in the history of Bitcoin." — Dave Ripley
Dave runs an exchange that has spread across banking, tokenized stocks, payments and services for other institutions, and he says that spread is why Payward's revenue grew through 2025.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 30 minutes of audio, 8 minutes of reading.
Here are the 9 takeaways that matter.
Key Takeaways
Dave thinks the bear market is over, and that it was the softest in Bitcoin's history
Banks that failed with private blockchains in 2014–15 are back, this time on public, permissionless chains
Kraken has filed its S-1 confidentially, but Dave can't discuss timing
xStocks passed $1B in assets, with trading volume of more than $40B
Overseas holders are buying tokenized US stocks the way they first bought stablecoins
Dave calls stablecoins "a Trojan horse" that brings Bitcoin and the rest of crypto into financial services
Agentic payments are "minuscule" today, but Dave thinks AI agents could be major economic actors within years
Payward Services sells Kraken's infrastructure to Nasdaq and the London Stock Exchange
1. The Softest Bear Market Yet
Dave said the recent move back above $80,000 convinced him the worst of this cycle is behind it, even though the traditional four-year framework puts Bitcoin only in the middle.
Dave Ripley thinks Bitcoin's recent drawdown was its whole bear market
His evidence is growth across the industry and across Payward's own business lines. In his view, a drawdown that never reached the depth of earlier ones, while the business kept growing, is a bear market that has already happened.
