Kraken Seeks Delaware Court Judgment After $22 Million Award Against Mazars USA

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, asked the Delaware Court of Chancery to enter judgment after an arbitrator awarded the firm $22 million against former auditor Mazars USA, according to a letter published Tuesday by co-CEO Arjun Sethi.

“Payward, the parent company of the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, has asked the Delaware Court of Chancery to enter a final judgment against its former auditor, Mazars USA, after an arbitrator awarded the firm $22 million”

Bitcoin Magazine

Sethi said Mazars withdrew from Kraken’s nearly completed 2022 audit days before completion despite finding no fraud, raising no concerns about management’s integrity, and reporting no disagreements with the company.

Bitcoin Magazine

In the same letter, Sethi linked the dispute to what he described as Operation Chokepoint 2.0 and argued that lawful crypto firms were denied access to banking relationships, licensing processes, and other essential business services that rely on completed independent audits.

Sethi wrote, "An audit is not a favor. It is oxygen," and he urged Congress to pass the CLARITY Act to create clearer operating rules for digital asset companies instead of relying on enforcement actions.

Kraken co-CEO Dave Ripley said on X that the arbitration case represented only part of what happened during that period, describing the $22 million award as compensation for financial harm from a coordinated campaign against the crypto industry.

While Kraken pursued its legal fight, the Federal Reserve opened the door for public input on proposed changes to how banks structure their anti-money laundering programs, in a joint notice issued with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the National Credit Union Administration.

The proposal would make AML and counter-terrorism financing programs “outcomes-focused” rather than process-driven, and it would require banks to conduct formal risk assessments that incorporate FinCEN’s national priorities.

Business Insider

Crypto Briefing also described a regulatory split in which FinCEN published its own Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in April 2026 that revised AML/CFT requirements, with the OCC, FDIC, and NCUA aligning their proposals while the Federal Reserve chose not to issue a parallel rulemaking.

The comments deadline for the FinCEN 2026 proposed rules was June 9, 2026, and the Federal Reserve’s earlier notice set comments due 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.

The same briefing said the forthcoming GENIUS Act addresses AML/CFT and sanctions requirements for permitted payment stablecoin issuers, while noting that the proposals do not mention specific crypto tokens or digital assets.

Kraken’s legal and regulatory narrative is tied to broader banking oversight, with the Crypto News report saying the Federal Reserve requested public feedback in February on a proposal to remove “reputation risk” from bank supervision after its 2025 directive instructing supervisors to stop pressuring banks to close customer accounts over reputational concerns.

“The crypto exchange's parent company says Mazars' withdrawal from its 2022 audit caused millions in damages and tied the dispute to Operation Chokepoint 2”

Cointelegraph

In the same report, Kraken executives continued expanding products while the legal dispute moved through the Delaware court, including allowing eligible users outside the United States to use selected tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds as collateral for futures and margin trading on Kraken Pro.

Crypto News said the launch covers 10 xStocks assets, including SPYx, QQQx, AAPLx, GOOGLx, TSLAx, NVDAx, HOODx, MSTRx, GLDx and CRCLx, and it described the goal as letting traders back leveraged crypto positions without selling those holdings.

Kraken’s parent company also framed the arbitration as part of a push for durable market-structure rules, with FX News Group quoting Arjun Sethi saying, "We sued. We won. An arbitrator awarded us $22 million."

FX News Group added that Kraken said Congress must “finish the job” by passing the CLARITY Act and creating durable digital asset market structure rules in the United States.