The second-largest cryptocurrency exchange in America, Kraken seemed to be following the footsteps of Coinbase, which is the largest in the region. Kraken’s chief executive officer, Jesse Powell appeared in a recent interview and revealed that the exchange would soon be going public.

The cryptocurrency exchange that is reportedly valued at more than $10 billion has been thinking of going public. While these rumors surfaced a couple of months ago, nobody from the platform affirmed the same. This time, however, Powell spoke to Bloomberg and announced that Kraken would go public in 12 to 18 months. The CEO stated,

“We’re on a mission to bring crypto to the world, and our valuation hopefully will be a reflection of our success in achieving that mission.”

2021 has been particularly great for the crypto-verse. Just as the value of cryptocurrencies grew, the adoption also followed suit. Kraken also noticed a surge in the sign-ups specifically in the first two months of the year, which reportedly surpassed all of 2020.

Kraken’s CEO: ‘Elon has more studying to do’

Bitcoin’s recent plummet in price is closely associated with Elon Musk’s latest move. The tech billionaire dropped support for Bitcoin and went on to express concerns over the damages the asset’s mining process causes. While this is a widely debated topic, several from the crypto-verse have been suggesting that Bitcoin isn’t as bad as people consider it to be, in terms of power consumption.

Powell was one of them as he pointed out that Bitcoin was a lot “greener” than people gave it credit for. Commenting on Tesla’s recent move, he added.

“I don’t know how long Elon has been studying this, but I think he’s got some more studying to do on this topic.”

Musk was quick to hit back as he tweeted in response to Powell’s comments. Addressing the “Bitcoin is greener” narrative, Musk asked Powell,

“Based on what data?”

During press time, Powell hadn’t acknowledged the tweet.