Kraken's parent company wins $22 million arbitration against auditing firm Mazars Odaily Planet Daily News: Kraken's parent company Payward has won an arbitration with former auditing firm Mazars USA, and the arbitrator has ruled that Mazars needs to pay Payward $22 million. Payward is currently requesting the Delaware Court of Chancery to confirm the arbitration award and make a final judgment. The controversy originated during the peak period of "Operation Choke Point 2.0" in 2022. Payward stated that Mazars abruptly withdrew from a nearly completed audit of Kraken and did not find any issues with the company, but this action caused reputational damage to Kraken and forced it to spend years and significant legal costs clarifying itself. Payward Co CEO Arjun Sethi stated that audits are not a "favor" for cryptocurrency companies, but rather a critical infrastructure for maintaining bank relationships, licenses, counterparties, and regulatory trust. Withdrawing an audit firm without negative findings will leave the company with unfounded doubts. Operation Choke Point 2.0 "is the term used by the cryptocurrency industry to describe the regulatory pressure during the Biden administration, referring to the informal pressure exerted by US regulators on banks to restrict services to cryptocurrency companies after the collapse of the FTX. Sethi stated that the US FDIC has sent at least 25 letters to 24 banks requesting them to suspend or avoid expanding their cryptocurrency related businesses. This ruling is also seen as a legal counterattack by the cryptocurrency industry against regulatory pressure.