Kraken CLO to public company CEO after a $300M raise | Marco Santori on Chai Tea with Nina D.
Release Date: 01/21/2026
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info_outlineFrom the front lines of crypto regulation to the CEO seat. In this episode, Marco Santori, widely known as the Dean of Digital Currency Lawyers, shares his extraordinary journey from shaping the legal foundations of cryptocurrency to leading Solmate, a digital asset treasury company navigating the future of finance.
Marco takes us inside his work advising regulators, his time at Kraken, and what it’s really like to go head-to-head with the SEC in high-stakes litigation that helped define the crypto industry as we know it today. But this conversation goes beyond law and markets. Marco opens up about leadership, decision-making under pressure, building high-performing teams, and the personal growth required to step into larger responsibility.
This is a candid, grounded look at what it takes to operate at the edge of innovation – where regulation, risk, and conviction collide.
Timestamps:
0:01 Marco Santori: From Crypto Lawyer to CEO
2:02 Impostor Syndrome as a CEO
4:03 What Being a CEO Really Means
7:12 Confidence vs Competence in Leadership
10:17 Why Self-Doubt Is a Strength
11:13 Immigrant Parents & Early Ambition
14:24 Raised to Become a Lawyer
22:33 Discovering Impostor Syndrome in Law
26:16 Getting Scammed Into Bitcoin (2012)
32:03 Becoming One of the First Crypto Lawyers
44:08 “They Tried to Annihilate Me Publicly”
1:03:16 Testifying Before Congress on Crypto
1:10:21 Beating the SEC in Court
1:15:01 FTX Collapse & Crisis Leadership
1:38:23 Raising $300M & Becoming a CEO
What You’ll Learn:
✅ How choosing the right people (and trusting yourself) shapes long-term success
✅ Marco’s pioneering role in the legal framework behind cryptocurrency
✅ The pivotal career moves that led from crypto law to CEO leadership
✅ Why conviction and deliberate decision-making matter more than certainty
✅ How high-performing teams are built – and sustained – under pressure
✅ The origin and impact of the SAFT project and what it changed
If this conversation challenged or inspired you, LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and COMMENT with your biggest takeaway.
Marco Santori: https://x.com/msantoriESQ
Solmate: https://solmate.com/
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