- The FBI stops the investigation against Jesse Powell. No charges. The cryptom market does not take care of it – he fell anyway.
- The investigation had triggered dispute at Verge Arts and false accusation. Powell is now complaining about defamation.
The FBI has officially discontinued its investigation against the Kraken founder and ex-CEO Jesse Powell. No charges. The investigation that started in 2023 was not related to Powell’s crypto activities.
Instead, the investigators focused on a conflict at the Verge Center for the Arts, a non -profit organization founded by Powell. Allegations of Verge board members accused him of having accessed internal accounts during a dispute over to control over the organization and blocked email access. Powell rejected the allegations and was involved in a civil process on this matter.
The FBI searched Powell’s residence in Los Angeles and confiscated IT equipment to a large scale. It has now been returned. Powell said his claim that Verge’s leadership had tried to wrongly remove him from office. He described the whole thing as devastating and now raises defamation against Verge.
Kraken wants to go to the stock exchange in 2026
Powell was not charged, but the crypto market fell anyway. Bitcoin fell below $ 29,000, ether under $ 1,850. Analysts lead to regulatory signals as the reason for concern. The investigation of the investigations did little to calm investors.
It is said that the company is considering the IPO in 2026. Powell, who resigned as a Kraken CEO in 2022, is now a member of the Supervisory Board. He made his relief air after the investigation has been set and explained:
I am very happy that I have had it behind me. It never made sense, but the novel Storm processes didn’t. Incredible how quickly you can turn life upside down. I am grateful for those who have looked through it and for my excellent team of lawyers. Now I am turning my attention back. “
Crypto industry is behind Powell-a lot of criticism of the authorities
Several industry managers expressed their support for Powell, whereby Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong emphasized the investigation as unfounded and Powell’s positive influence on the industry. He said:
“The result is a sign of the progress in the education of past violations of the law.”
However, he noted that the regulatory regime still had to be improved.
Glad to see this baseless probe dropped. @jespow has contributed a ton to the crypto.
The regulatory landscape is fast improving – we still need more progress, but obvious moves like this are a good start, cleaning up past lawfare. pic.twitter.com/127lBwbjc3
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) July 23, 2025
Casa-Gründer Jameson race said Similarly and spoke of a reasonless persecution that was finally completed. Binance ex-CEO ZHAO expressed itself also:
“It must have been a few hard years, but it is easy to see that everything has been clarified.”
The case attracted attention due to Powell’s commitment in the crypto sector and the general anti-crypto posture of US authorities in the bidding government.
While a significant hurdle is now overcome, the markets often suffer from unclear signals from politics and many customers are unsettled.
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