Kraken won $22M from its former auditor. The pressure campaign now has a receipt.
Payward wants a Delaware court to turn an arbitration win into final judgment, and Kraken is using the filing to put names and numbers on its Chokepoint case.
CryptoVibe Desk · kraken · regulation · sec
- →Payward asked Delaware's Chancery Court to enter final judgment after a $22 million arbitration award against Mazars USA.
- →Kraken says Mazars quit its 2022 audit days before completion because of SEC pressure, not because of audit findings.
- →Watch the Delaware judgment and Mazars' response this quarter, because this case now tests Kraken's Chokepoint narrative in court.
- Arbitration → A private legal process where a neutral decision-maker resolves a dispute outside a normal trial.
- Operation Chokepoint 2.0 → A crypto industry label for alleged government pressure that pushed banks and service providers away from crypto firms.
- Final judgment → A court order that makes a legal award enforceable like a normal court decision.
- SAB 121 → An SEC accounting rule that required banks to treat customer crypto as a liability on their own books. It was later rescinded.
Kraken's parent won a $22 million arbitration award. Payward asked the Delaware Court of Chancery on July 7 to enter final judgment against Mazars USA. The exchange disclosed the filing through an open letter from co-CEO Arjun Sethi and posts from CEO Dave Ripley.
The number matters because Kraken is not treating this as a vendor fight. It is framing the Mazars exit as proof that pressure on crypto firms reached outside banks and regulators. That claim now has a dollar figure attached.
Mazars had audited Kraken for three prior years. The auditor issued two clean opinions before resigning from Kraken's 2022 audit in December 2023, days before completion. Kraken says Mazars cited the SEC's complaint against the exchange, which was later dismissed with prejudice.
The filing shows Mazars' own exit letter cited no disagreement with management, no concern about integrity, and no fraud finding. If you're reading this as another crypto grievance thread, that is the part that changes the tape.
The SEC case ended with no penalties and no admission of wrongdoing. Kraken's argument is simple: Mazars walked because the regulatory weather turned bad, not because the books failed. The numbers don't add up if the audit file was clean.
Bitcoin Magazine reported at least 25 FDIC letters to two dozen banks urging pauses on crypto activity. That figure is single-source, so treat it as cited, not settled. But it fits the timeline Kraken is building.
That timeline includes the January 2023 Fed, FDIC, and OCC warning on crypto business models. It also includes SAB 121, Custodia's master account denial, and the March 2023 shutdowns of Silvergate and Signature payment networks. Much of that pressure system has since been pulled back.
Kraken is also pushing into Europe. CoinDesk reported the company is pursuing a full banking license through Lithuania. If approved, Kraken would be the first crypto exchange with a full European bank license.
That makes the Mazars fight bigger than one audit. Kraken is trying to show regulators and service firms that walking away from crypto clients can carry a cost. The number to watch is whether Delaware turns the $22 million award into a court judgment.
Mazars' choice to quit Kraken's audit days before completion looks reckless because its own written exit showed no fraud finding, no integrity concern, and no management dispute.
By the end of Q3 2026, watch whether Delaware enters the full $22 million judgment or Mazars files a challenge that delays enforcement.
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