简而言之 Kraken 母公司 Payward 在一篇博客文章中表示,在起诉前审计师玛泽美国 (Mazars USA) 退出几乎完整的审计后,一名仲裁员判给了 Payward 2200 万美元的赔偿。 联合首席执行官 Arjun Sethi 表示,Mazars 在撤回时引用了美国证券交易委员会 (SEC) 驳回针对 Kraken 的案件的法律不确定性,并声称该公司被迫放弃该行业。 Payward 正在要求特拉华州衡平法院对该裁决作出最终判决,塞西利用这封信敦促通过《澄清法案》。 Kraken 的母公司 Payward 已针对其前审计师 Mazars USA 赢得了 2200 万美元的仲裁裁决,该公司放弃了即将完成的审计,该加密货币交易所在周二的博客文章中表示。 Payward 目前正在要求特拉华州衡平法院对该裁决作出最终判决,联合首席执行官 Arjun Sethi 在一封公开信中同时呼吁彻底改革美国加密货币规则。该公司起诉 Mazars 放弃审计,Sethi 表示,这在所谓的“阻塞点 2.0 行动”高峰期造成了声誉损害。 我们已经有一段时间没有谈论 Chokepoint 2.0 了。
Kraken 将获得特拉华州衡平法院颁发的 2200 万美元赔偿金,以补偿我们因协调一致的行动切断加密货币与银行、审计和其他基本服务的联系而给我们造成的经济损失。 pic.twitter.com/gJoJ5ytU07 戴夫·里普利 (@DavidLRipley) 2026 年 7 月 7 日 “审计不是恩惠。它是氧气,”塞西写道,他认为银行关系、许可证和监管机构都依赖于审计。他说,当审计员在没有任何发现的情况下离开时,客户就只能以数年时间和数百万美元的法律费用来修复从未造成的声誉损失。 流产的审计 Sethi 表示,玛泽对 Kraken 的财务状况进行了三年的审计,并发表了两份明确的意见,然后在 2023 年 12 月完成之前的第三次审计中退出。他表示,该公司以书面形式确认,与管理层没有分歧,对公司的诚信没有任何担忧,也没有发现任何欺诈行为。
据塞西称,玛泽在退出时指出了法律上的不确定性,包括美国证券交易委员会几周前对 Kraken 提出的投诉。这位联合首席执行官声称,审计师实际上是迫于压力而放弃了一个服务政治成本高昂的行业,并指出玛泽集团已于 2022 年 12 月停止了整个加密行业的准备金证明工作。 阻塞点行动2.0 “窒息点行动 2.0”是一个广泛使用的术语,批评者将其描述为拜登政府在 FTX 崩溃后向银行施压,要求其切断加密货币行业的非正式行动。这与奥巴马时代的一项计划相呼应,该计划依靠银行放弃发薪日贷款机构和枪支经销商等业务。 Sethi 指出,美联储、FDIC 和 OCC 于 2023 年 1 月 3 日发表联合声明,警告银行注意加密货币的风险,并指出 FDIC 向 24 家银行发送了至少 25 封“暂停信”,倡导者称这些信函告诉贷方停止或推迟加密货币活动。大约在同一时间,美国证券交易委员会在时任主席加里·詹斯勒 (Gary Gensler) 的领导下,正在起诉或调查数十家加密货币公司,其中包括 Kraken。 SEC 与 Kraken
SEC 对 Kraken 的诉讼后来于 2025 年 3 月被有偏见地驳回,没有受到处罚,也没有承认不当行为,这是 Gensler 离开和特朗普政府改变方针后更广泛撤退的一部分。阻塞点行动 2.0 已基本结束,之前的指导方针已被撤销,官员们正在审查不当的银行业务剥离。 塞西表示,损失超出了审计范围。他写道,Kraken 联合创始人兼前首席执行官杰西·鲍威尔 (Jesse Powell) 因与一家与交易所无关的非营利组织发生纠纷,于 2023 年 3 月被联邦特工突击搜查,并表示调查大约两年后结束,没有受到任何指控,鲍威尔的设备也被归还。此后,鲍威尔将日常控制权移交给戴夫·里普利 (Dave Ripley),塞西后来加入担任联合首席执行官。 呼吁清晰度 Sethi 利用这封信来推动《澄清法案》,这是一项加密货币市场结构法案,将在 SEC 和 CFTC 之间划分对数字资产的监管。他认为,证明合法的加密货币业务值得普通银行和专业服务永远不应该需要赢得法律诉讼。
该法案去年在众议院获得通过后,今年 5 月以 15 比 9 的投票结果在参议院银行委员会获得通过,但在 7 月 4 日休会前陷入停滞,仍需参议院全体投票并与配套措施达成一致才能送交总统办公桌。 每日简报时事通讯 每天从当前的热门新闻报道以及原创专题、播客、视频等开始。
In brief
An arbitrator awarded Payward, Kraken's parent company, $22 million after it sued former auditor Mazars USA for quitting a nearly complete audit, the exchange said in a blog post.
Co-CEO Arjun Sethi said Mazars cited legal uncertainty around the SEC's since-dismissed case against Kraken when it withdrew, and alleged the firm had been pressured to drop the industry.
Payward is asking the Delaware Court of Chancery to enter final judgment on the award, and Sethi used the letter to press for passage of the Clarity Act.
Kraken's parent company, Payward, has won a $22 million arbitration award against its former auditor, Mazars USA, which walked away from a nearly finished audit, the crypto exchange said in a blog post on Tuesday.
Payward is now asking the Delaware Court of Chancery to enter final judgment on the award, in an open letter from co-CEO Arjun Sethi that doubled as a call to overhaul U.S. crypto rules. The company sued Mazars for abandoning the audit, which Sethi said caused reputational harm at the height of the so-called Operation Choke Point 2.0.
It's been a while since we talked about Chokepoint 2.0.
Kraken will enter a $22M award with the Delaware Court of Chancery -- compensation for financial harm inflicted on us by the coordinated campaign to cut crypto off from banking, auditors, and other essential services. pic.twitter.com/gJoJ5ytU07
— Dave Ripley (@DavidLRipley) July 7, 2026
"An audit is not a favor. It is oxygen," Sethi wrote, arguing that banking relationships, licenses and regulators all depend on one. When an auditor walks away without any findings, he said, the client is left repairing reputational damage it never earned, at a cost of years and millions in legal fees.
The abortive audit
Mazars had audited Kraken's financials for three years and delivered two clean opinions, Sethi said, before quitting the third audit days before completion in December 2023. He said the firm confirmed in writing that it had no disagreement with management, no concerns about the company's integrity, and had found no fraud.
According to Sethi, Mazars pointed to legal uncertainty when it withdrew, including a complaint the SEC had filed against Kraken weeks earlier. The co-CEO claimed that the auditor had in fact been pressured to abandon an industry that had become politically costly to serve, noting that Mazars Group had halted its proof-of-reserves work for the entire crypto sector in December 2022.
Operation Choke Point 2.0 is a widely used term for what critics describe as the Biden administration's unofficial campaign to pressure banks into cutting off the crypto industry after the collapse of FTX. It echoes an Obama-era program that leaned on banks to drop businesses such as payday lenders and firearms dealers.
Sethi pointed to a January 3, 2023 joint statement from the Federal Reserve, FDIC and OCC warning banks about the risks of crypto, and to FDIC "pause letters," at least 25 of them sent to 24 banks, that advocates say told lenders to halt or hold off on crypto activity. Around the same time, the SEC under then-chair Gary Gensler was suing or investigating dozens of crypto firms, Kraken among them.
The SEC vs Kraken
The SEC's suit against Kraken was later dismissed with prejudice in March 2025, with no penalties or admission of wrongdoing, part of a broader retreat after Gensler left and the Trump administration changed course. Operation Choke Point 2.0 has largely been wound down, with earlier guidance rolled back and officials now examining wrongful debanking.
Sethi said the damage went beyond the audit. He wrote that Kraken co-founder and former CEO Jesse Powell had his home raided by federal agents in March 2023 over a dispute with a nonprofit unrelated to the exchange, and said the investigation was closed about two years later with no charges and Powell's devices returned. Powell has since handed day-to-day control to Dave Ripley, with Sethi later joining as co-CEO.
A call for Clarity
Sethi used the letter to push for the Clarity Act, the crypto market structure bill that would divide oversight of digital assets between the SEC and the CFTC. He argued that proving a lawful crypto business deserves ordinary banking and professional services should never require winning a legal fight.
The bill cleared the Senate Banking Committee in a 15-9 vote in May, after passing the House last year, but stalled before the July 4 recess and still needs a full Senate vote and reconciliation with a companion measure before it could reach the president's desk.