Pantera Capital Hires Kraken's Former Chief Legal Officer Marco Santori as General Partner

Marco Santori, the former Chief Legal Officer at Kraken, has joined Pantera Capital as a General Partner. This move brings a wealth of expertise in crypto regulation to Pantera, as Santori is known for crafting the Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT) framework and leading Kraken’s legal team through significant regulatory actions.

Santori’s career in the crypto industry began at Blockchain.com, where he served as Chief Legal Officer, advising on early token launches and exchange listings. He later moved to Kraken, where he built and led a team of nearly 70 lawyers. Under his leadership, Kraken managed global compliance, anti-money laundering programs, and two high-profile enforcement actions brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. His efforts helped Kraken navigate complex regulatory waters while scaling to become one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges.

One of Santori’s most notable contributions is the SAFT framework, which he designed to enable compliant fundraising under U.S. securities law. This model allows accredited investors to purchase rights to future tokens, mitigating legal uncertainty for startups. Although the framework has its critics, it has become a foundational tool for many pre-token-sale financings, bringing institutional capital into blockchain projects.

Pantera Capital, founded in 2013 as the first Bitcoin venture fund, has grown into a multi-strategy powerhouse managing over $5 billion across venture, token, and hedge funds. Its investments span a wide range of digital assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, DeFi protocols, infrastructure plays, and tokenized real-world assets. Pantera’s blend of technical due diligence and market insights has backed notable names such as Chainlink, Circle, and 0x, cementing its reputation as a pioneer in digital-asset investing.

In his new role as General Partner at Pantera, Santori will embed legal strategy at the heart of the firm’s investment process. His responsibilities include designing licensing and registration plans for token offerings and exchanges, strengthening legal and regulatory reviews to identify risk early, leveraging government relationships to forecast regulatory trends, and mentoring startups on tokenomics, corporate governance, and public-market readiness. This strategic elevation of legal expertise reflects Pantera’s view that compliance is not just a defensive necessity but a growth enabler.

Santori’s dual perspective—from exchange operations and venture investing—positions Pantera to marry innovation with regulatory rigor. Even as he steps into his Pantera role, he remains a Senior Adviser to Kraken, ensuring he brings real-time insights on exchange best practices into Pantera’s investment thesis. Conversely, his venture vantage allows him to guide startups on scaling operations with the controls necessary for exchange listings and institutional adoption.