So I got this email today

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Ethereum is expected to undergo an upgrade (known as “The Merge”) and transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake between September 10-20, 2022.

The Merge is a major milestone for the Ethereum community and Kraken will support this event in ways that help our clients and further Kraken's mission.

What should I expect from the Merge?

Funding, Trading

Your assets will remain safe, as always, and no action is required on your part. There will be no need to convert your existing ETH into anything else before, during or after The Merge. Your current ETH balance will continue to be visible as ETH.

In order to ensure a smooth transition, deposits and withdrawals for ETH and all Ethereum-based (ERC20) tokens will be temporarily suspended during the Merge but ETH trading markets will remain active and available just as they have prior to the network update.

Forked tokens

During this transition, new forked tokens may be created. Kraken will subject any newly forked token(s) to the same strict review process that we follow before making any token available for trading. It is not guaranteed that any such tokens will be made available for trading, as per our policy. Even if Kraken does not decide to support trading of ETH PoW (or other forked tokens), Kraken may still decide to support custody of ETH PoW (or other forked tokens). In that case, if you hold ETH in your account, we would credit your account with a new ETHW (or other designated ticker) token.

Where can I learn more?

Please refer to the link below for more information about the Merge:

Read more about the Merge

If you have additional questions, review our Ethereum Merge, Staking and Trading FAQ.

Thank you for choosing Kraken, the trusted and secure digital asset exchange.

The Kraken Team

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As far as I can tell, Kraken is the only one that might give CEX users that maybe staked ETH or is holding ETH on their CEX the air dropped coins around this merger.

While they aren't giving the exact tokens, it is SOMETHING.

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Note Coinbase sent an email out I think yesterday. It basically said those who staked ETH won't be able to unstake until 2023 I think. But they will be giving us some other token so we can trade our locked tokens for other things. But I don't recall seeing anything about them giving us the forked tokens or anything around that.

IMO we need to push hard for it to be a standard practice for users on CEX to get the forked tokens and airdrops both inside this merger and outside.

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Before anyone says some BS about not your keys not your crypto.

Until recently you couldn't really stake ETH to support ETH 2. While with many CEX like Coinbase and Kraken you could. In the case with CEX, you were told ahead of time you were locking your tokens until ETH 2 came out (which is why I think Coinbase is doing what they are doing. Like for legal reasons.)

And then this ignores how much of the world population doesn't have the understanding on how to hold their crypto on anything but a CEX.

And lastly, saying such things basically brushes away any bad behavior from the CEX. Like it switches the blame to the user, when this could easily be fixed with an industry wide standard. Like if Coinbase and some of the others stepped up and did this. It could become an expected standard.