The US Justice Department has closed its investigation into Kraken’s founder Jesse Powell, and returned dozens of laptops and mobile phones agents seized during an FBI raid two years ago, Fortune reported on July 22.

The federal case did not revolve around Kraken’s operations, but rather a bitter governance fight at the Verge Center for the Arts, a Sacramento nonprofit Powell founded in 2008.

News of the raid first surfaced in The New York Times, which reported that agents were probing allegations Powell had “hacked and cyber-stalked” the nonprofit.

Court filings since then depict something far less cinematic: a dispute over who controlled Slack and Google Workspace accounts after Powell was pushed off Verge’s board. 

Powell insisted he never cut off anyone’s access and argues instead that Verge insiders quietly created a new domain and parallel work accounts before moving to oust him. 

He is pursuing a civil lawsuit in state court, accusing former colleagues of defamation and wrongful removal.

Justice Department drops the case

Documents Powell filed this week include a so-called declination letter from prosecutors, confirming the Justice Department has walked away from the case.

His attorney said he requested the letter to counter the reputational damage caused by the raid and to reassure banks and regulators that Kraken’s leadership is not under federal scrutiny. 

Powell called the search “devastating” personally and professionally, maintaining that discovery in his lawsuit has already shown the accusations to be baseless.

The government’s exit does not resolve lingering questions. Neither the Justice Department nor the FBI would comment on how the Times obtained details of the investigation.

Powell’s latest filings also accuse two Verge board members, one of them attorney Phil Cunningham, of withholding key documents during discovery. 

Verge, meanwhile, continues to operate as a fixture of Sacramento’s arts scene, supported over the years by more than $1 million in donations and extensive tech assistance from Powell. 

Notably, Powell declined to say whether the returned devices held Bitcoin or other digital assets. When agents seized the hardware, Bitcoin (BTC) traded near $23,000. As of press time, BTC trades near $119,000.

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Lawmakers in Argentina are taking action to investigate a cryptocurrency scandal involving the nation’s president, Javier Milei.

On February 14th, the price of the newly-launched LIBRA memecoin surged after Milei posted about the project on his social media accounts.

Within hours, the token crashed, causing over 75,000 retail investors an estimated $280 million in losses. Milei removed his posts five hours after making them.

The incident prompted allegations of a rug pull scam, which happens when backers hype and inflate the price of a crypto asset and then suddenly abandon the project after taking the investors’ funds.

The Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Argentine National Congress, is now pushing forward with the investigation of the scandal following the approval of three draft resolutions related to LIBRA.

The first resolution to create an investigative commission was approved with 128 votes in favor, 93 against and seven abstentions.

The second, which seeks to question executive branch officials, including Chief of Staff Guillermo Francos, Minister of Economy Luis Caputo, Minister of Justice Mariano Cúneo Libarona and head of the National Securities Commission (CNV) Roberto Silva, received 131 affirmative votes and 96 negative votes.

The third resolution to request reports from the national government on various issues associated with the Libra cryptocurrency was approved with 135 votes in favor, 84 against and seven abstentions.

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The US Securities and Exchange Commission has formally closed its investigation into Australian web3 gaming firm Immutable, the company announced on March 25.

Immutable, known for its Ethereum-based gaming infrastructure and native IMX token, revealed that it had received a Wells notice from the SEC in November 2024 — an indication that the agency was considering enforcement action.

The company believed the inquiry was related to its token’s listing and early sales, which date back to 2021. With the investigation now dropped and no charges filed, Immutable called the decision a step forward for regulatory clarity in the blockchain gaming sector.

Immutable, which aims to bring blockchain-based ownership to the global gaming market, said it plans to accelerate its expansion now that the regulatory uncertainty has been lifted.

String of closures

The case’s closure adds to a growing list of enforcement efforts withdrawn or halted under the SEC’s acting chair, Mark Uyeda.

Since taking the helm in January, Uyeda has overseen the dissolution of several high-profile probes as the agency distances itself from the aggressive enforcement strategy employed during Gary Gensler’s tenure.

In recent weeks, investigations into other major crypto companies — including Gemini, Robinhood, OpenSea, and Yuga Labs — have also been closed. Meanwhile, legal actions involving firms such as Coinbase, Ripple, and Kraken have been dismissed or paused.

The SEC has also established a new Crypto Task Force led by Commissioner Hester Peirce, a longtime advocate for clearer crypto guidelines.

The initiative is part of a broader effort to engage with industry stakeholders and craft formal rulemaking rather than relying on enforcement as a primary tool.

Task force

Since its launch in January, the Crypto Task Force has taken a more collaborative and transparent approach to crypto regulation.

The task force has hosted a series of public roundtables addressing core issues such as digital asset classification, crypto trading platforms, custody solutions, tokenization, and decentralized finance.

It has also actively sought public input from industry stakeholders, including a formal submission from Ripple advocating for clear, predictable criteria to determine whether a digital asset qualifies as a security.

The task force’s efforts signal a broader shift toward structured rulemaking aimed at providing regulatory clarity while supporting innovation in the digital asset space.

The SEC’s evolving posture comes amid a wider re-evaluation of crypto oversight in Washington, fueled in part by policy shifts under the Trump administration.

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OKX has temporarily suspended its Web3 decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator following discussions with European regulators.

The exchange announced this decision on March 17, stating that the move is part of efforts to enhance security measures and prevent misuse of its platform.

Bybit hack connection

The suspension comes as European authorities investigate allegations that hackers linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group used OKX Web3 to launder funds stolen in the recent Bybit hack.

A recent Bloomberg report suggested regulators from all 27 European Union nations discussed this issue during a European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) meeting on March 6.

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou confirmed that the hackers leveraged OKX Web3 to launder approximately $100 million of the stolen $1.5 billion.

In response, EU regulators are now assessing whether the platform falls under the jurisdiction of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory framework and exploring possible penalties for OKX.

OKX’s response

OKX maintains that its involvement in the laundering process was due to incorrect labeling by blockchain explorers and other decentralized exchanges.

The exchange stated that it is actively working with these explorers to ensure accurate transaction reporting and prevent misidentification of its aggregator as the point of trade.

It explained:

“We know that transparency is key, so we’re also working closely with blockchain explorers to correct incomplete labeling. Our goal is to ensure that explorers properly highlight the actual DEX processing trades rather than mistakenly identifying our aggregator as the point of trade.”

The platform also reiterated that its aggregator does not custody user assets but merely provides access to liquidity across multiple decentralized protocols.

To further strengthen security, the platform has introduced a system designed to detect hacker addresses in real time and block them from accessing its centralized exchange.

OKX CEO Star Xu said on X:

“We already rolled out a lot of controls for OKX Web3 to fight with the misuse including prohibited markets’ ip blocking and real-time black address detection and blocking system.”

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The company that created the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs, Yuga Labs, is celebrating a significant court win. Without pursuing any enforcement measures, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has formally concluded its investigation into the company.

This decision brings an end to a probe that lasted more than three years and questioned whether Yuga Labs’ NFT sales and its ApeCoin (APE) token should be classified as securities.

The SEC Probe And Its Purpose

The SEC first launched its investigation into Yuga Labs in October 2022. At the time, regulators were looking into whether BAYC NFTs and ApeCoin fell under federal securities laws. The inquiry was part of a broader effort to determine how digital assets should be regulated in the US.

Yuga Labs maintained throughout the investigation that NFTs are not securities. On March 3, 2025, the company announced on X (formerly Twitter) that the SEC had officially closed its case, calling it “a huge win for NFTs and all creators pushing our ecosystem forward.”

After 3+ years, the SEC has officially closed its investigation into Yuga Labs.

This is a huge win for NFTs and all creators pushing our ecosystem forward. NFTs are not securities.

— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) March 3, 2025

A Long Wait For Clarity

Yuga Labs worked in the shadow of the SEC’s probe for over three years. The NFT space was tense due to the uncertainties around possible regulatory action. Many industry participants were concerned that a decision against Yuga Labs might result in more stringent guidelines for other NFT initiatives.

Now that the case has been dropped, some see it as a sign that regulators might be rethinking their approach to NFTs. Others believe this could simply be one of many steps before the SEC fully determines how it wants to handle digital collectibles.

How The NFT Market Reacted

The news was met with a positive response from the NFT community. Yuga Labs supporters and industry figures hailed the SEC’s decision as a sign that NFTs may not face the same regulatory scrutiny as some cryptocurrencies.

But it’s still not clear what the SEC will do with other NFT projects in the future. The investigation into this case is over, but that doesn’t mean that similar ones won’t happen again in the future. For now, Yuga Labs has come out on top.

What This Means For Crypto Regulation

The SEC’s decision to discontinue its investigation without filing charges may have an impact on how regulators view NFTs in the future. While this does not establish a legal precedent, it does suggest that the agency is willing to distinguish between different sorts of digital assets.

Some experts think this could be a turning point, while others warn that it will be a long time before regulations are clear. No matter what, the end of this probe is good for Yuga Labs and the NFT space as a whole.

Featured image from Gemini Imagen, chart from TradingView