Kraken Exchange has Announced that accounts belonging to FTX, Alameda Research and their executives have been frozen after FTX filed for bankruptcy in the United States.

According to a tweet from Kraken, he decided to freeze those accounts to safeguard FTX creditors, Alameda Research and their executives after speaking with law enforcement.

Kraken further emphasized that other customer accounts are not included in those that have been blocked and that the company currently has full reserves.

Kraken also added that their first concern has always been and will continue to be the protection of clients’ finances. The exchange hinted that his dedication to a higher standard of accountability and transparency in the cryptocurrency industry is evidenced by his ongoing Proof of Reserves audits.

The purpose of a Proof of Reserves (PoR) is to verify that a custodian actually holds the assets it claims to hold on behalf of its clients. It is an independent audit performed by a third party. This auditor brings together all balances stored in a Merkle tree, a privacy-friendly data structure containing all customer balances, after taking an anonymous snapshot of each balance.

Kraken’s dealings with regulators

Exchange Kraken reported in September that it has no intention of removing tokens titled as securities from its platform, despite base of coins being investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for listing designated currencies as securities. According to Kraken CEO Dave Ripley, there is now no need to do so because Kraken does not offer securities.

In October, Kraken’s Blair Halliday, who previously served as Gemini’s UK boss, was appointed as the new CEO of Kraken’s UK operations. Halliday will be in charge of managing Kraken’s 350 employees, as well as its “business, regulatory and political contacts in the UK,” according to the report.

The statement comes just after numerous executives changed their positions during the cryptocurrency bear market period, leaving many investors and shareholders unsure of what would happen next.

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