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Crypto Execs Met With US Lawmakers To Discuss BTC Reserve, Market Structure

by admin September 17, 2025

Members of the US Congress met with key figures in the cryptocurrency industry to discuss issues and potential laws related to the establishment of a strategic Bitcoin reserve and a market structure.

On Tuesday, a group of lawmakers that included Alaska Representative Nick Begich and Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno met with Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor and others in a roundtable event regarding the BITCOIN Act, a bill to establish a strategic Bitcoin (BTC) reserve. The discussion was hosted by the advocacy organization Digital Chamber and its affiliates, the Digital Power Network and Bitcoin Treasury Council.

“Legislators and the executives at yesterday’s roundtable agree, there is a need [for] a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve law to ensure its longevity for America’s financial future,” Hailey Miller, director of government affairs and public policy at Digital Power Network, told Cointelegraph. “Most attendees are looking for next steps, which may mean including the SBR within the broader policy frameworks already advancing.“

Source: Digital Power Network

Separately, several Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill and Majority Whip Tom Emmer, met on Tuesday with executives from crypto companies, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, to discuss issues related to the industry. The talks included the advancement of legislation for market structure, which the House of Representatives passed in July.

On Wednesday, another roundtable discussion with Republican leaders on the Senate Banking Committee, reportedly including Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, was held to consider the advancement of a market structure bill.

Republican senators said their version, tentatively called the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, was built on the CLARITY Act, which was passed by the House in July and expected to hold a committee vote by the end of September.

Related: US SEC crypto task force to tackle financial surveillance and privacy

The three roundtable discussions signaled that Republican lawmakers were continuing to focus on legislation related to the crypto and blockchain industry after ending a month-long recess in September.

Crypto bills under consideration, awaiting votes

The BITCOIN Act is expected to codify an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump in March, opening a legal avenue for the government to hold up to 1 million BTC in a national reserve.

The market structure bill, though still under discussion in the Senate, is expected to clarify the role US financial agencies would have in overseeing and enforcing regulations related to crypto.

Magazine: Bitcoin mining industry ‘going to be dead in 2 years’: Bit Digital CEO

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September 17, 2025 0 comments

GameFi Guides

Crypto Exchange Kraken Sees Handful of Senior Execs Depart: Source

by admin September 17, 2025

Kraken, the cryptocurrency exchange preparing for a potential public listing in the U.S. early next year, has seen the departure of four senior executives from the institutional side of the business, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Those who have recently left Kraken are: David Olsson, global head of institutional sales; Shannon Kurtas, head of exchanges and a VP of product and the Pro service; Jeff Kramer, a director of OTC trading and Sanjay K, OTC trading lead for Americas, the person said, who declined to be identified.

Kraken declined to comment on the departures, none of whom immediately responded to requests for comment.

Kraken was reported to have trimmed “hundreds” of jobs ahead of a U.S. listing planned for the first quarter of 2026. Back in April of this year, a Kraken spokesperson said the firm was “making the difficult decision to eliminate certain roles and consolidate teams where redundancies exist, while continuing to hire in key areas of the business.”

Kraken’s income in Q2 2025 was 6.8% lower than in the equivalent quarter one year ago. The San Francisco, California-based exchange reported EBITDA of $79.7 million, versus $85.5 million in Q2 2024.

Read more: Kraken Sheds ‘Hundreds’ of Jobs to Streamline Business Ahead of IPO, Sources Say

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September 17, 2025 0 comments

GameFi Guides

Crypto Execs to Gather in Washington to Support Bitcoin Reserve Act

by admin September 16, 2025

Top crypto executives and policymakers are set to gather in Washington on Tuesday for a roundtable hosted by Senator Cynthia Lummis and Representative Nick Begich on shaping a national Bitcoin strategy.

The discussion will see MicroStrategy Co-Founder Michael Saylor, Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel, Charles Hoskinson, and other industry voices join lawmakers to weigh in on Bitcoin’s role in the U.S. economy. It will focus on boosting U.S. innovation, technology, and competitiveness, with the BITCOIN Act (Boosting Innovation, Technology, and Competitiveness through Optimized Investment Nationwide) at its core.

Reintroduced by Senator Cynthia Lummis in March, the bill proposes establishing a national Bitcoin reserve by acquiring one million bitcoins over five years through budget-neutral measures.

If the bill becomes law, Bitcoin would join the U.S. gold reserves as a national strategic asset. The plan builds on a Trump-era order that sought to treat Bitcoin as a permanent national asset.

Currently, the bill is under review in the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee, though hearings haven’t been scheduled. Lawmakers are pushing this as part of a broader effort to bring clearer rules to the crypto space.

This summer, the U.S. legislature passed the first law specifically for stablecoins and is now working on broader regulations for the entire crypto industry. Hailey Miller, Director of Government Relations at the Digital Power Network (DPN), has highlighted the importance of prioritizing the strategic bitcoin reserve.

Advancing the BITCOIN Act amid state momentum

The roundtable will discuss how to move the BITCOIN Act forward and find ways to get support from both Republicans and Democrats, since only Republicans currently back the bill. Republican lawmakers and crypto leaders, including Bitdeer’s Haris Basit, Riot’s Brian Morgenstern, and Cleanspark’s Matt Schultz, will also attend the event.

DPN will share a one-page brief at the event, presenting the BITCOIN Act as a chance for both parties to boost U.S. innovation and economic growth. The move comes after the U.S. passed a stablecoin law earlier this summer.

This initiative highlights the growing interest in regulating cryptocurrencies. Further, the discussion will focus on uniting key players to advance the bill and explore its impact on the nation’s financial strategy.

On May 8, 2025, Arizona became the second U.S. State to pass the Bitcoin Reserve Bill. Further, on August 15, 2025, the U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent stated that America might expand its Bitcoin reserve, and on May 22, 2025, the Texas House approved the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Bill.

Also Read: Philippine House Bill 421 Proposes a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

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September 16, 2025 0 comments

Esports

MLB execs, insiders on 2025 playoff favorites, biggest threats

by admin September 15, 2025

Jesse RogersSep 15, 2025, 07:00 AM ET
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The MLB playoffs are just around the corner and shaping up to be a wide-open affair. For the second consecutive season, there is not a single team on pace to win 100 or more games. That means there is plenty of parity across the majors, which is bound to carry over to October.

With that in mind, we asked 19 baseball players, executives and scouts: Who is the team to beat in the National League? And who is the team to beat in the American League?

There was little uniformity to their answers, though most agreed on one thing: a sleeper team that people in both leagues agreed could make a run in October. Here’s how those in the game view the upcoming postseason.

The NL’s team to beat is …

(Phillies, 5; Dodgers, 4; Padres, 2; Mets, 1)

Voting was as tight as you might imagine, considering the Brewers are mixed in with the defending champion Dodgers and high-priced Phillies. Those teams dominated our poll, leaving few votes for anyone else.

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All three teams can slug their way to the World Series, but the Dodgers have a distinct advantage in the power game, outhomering both Philadelphia and Milwaukee by a wide margin this regular season. However, Philly employs easily the best closer of the three — a crucial element that could help finish off those tight October games.

Still, it was the Brewers who won our poll because they’ve played at such a high level in all areas while also possessing a deep and healthy starting staff.

Why the Brewers

NL player: “They seem like a team that has a really solid plan and cohesive approach. And they seem like they’re on the same page. I just like how they play. And they’ve done it all year; why can’t they keep it going?”

NL scout: “They still have to figure out the back end of their pen, but in a short series, they have the luxury of sending one of their good starters to the bullpen. And they might just run into enough home runs to keep pace in October.”

NL exec: “Getting the bye will be huge for them. They’ve been knocked out in those short series several times; this will let them breathe a bit. Plus, their starting staff is so good. If I’m Milwaukee, I want the longer series.”

Biggest threats to Brewers

Philadelphia Phillies

NL player: “It’s simple for me. They still have good pitching, and they’ve been there before. Playoffs are about home runs, and they can hit them.”

NL player: “Their lineup is a little top-heavy, but they have enough at the bottom that can do the job. If those guys show up, then that lineup is really good. Their pen is incredible with [Jhoan] Duran.”

NL exec: “It’s their last hurrah, right? They have older players, some of whom will be free agents at the end of the season. I just can’t see [Bryce] Harper going his career without a ring, and this is their best chance, even without [Zack] Wheeler.”

Los Angeles Dodgers

NL player: “When we played them, they didn’t have a good series, but they seem to turn it on when they need to. That’s the sign of a champion. I think their offense will have a big October and lead them like it did last year.”

NL exec: “Talent will win out, and they have the potential for healthiest pitching staff all year in October.”

If not Milwaukee, Philadelphia or Los Angeles, then who?

Truth be told, these insiders responded before the latest Mets free fall became so dramatic — New York was on an eight-game losing streak that ended with an extra-innings win over Texas on Sunday. But, hey, anyone can get hot at the right time, right? The Mets proved that last year. But they have to prove they can even get into the October party before they can think about making a deep run.

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The Padres are hard to figure out, but that doesn’t make them less dangerous than any other contender. Some days, their offense goes into hibernation, but they can shut anyone down in the late innings. Their bullpen is that good and could take them far despite the loss of Jason Adam.

San Diego Padres

NL player: “I like San Diego. They’re hungry. They made all the right deadline moves. And they have the experience of getting close but not going all the way.”

NL exec: “There’s a lot to like about San Diego, but they can still be pitched to even with their deadline additions. It’s like they disappear sometimes. If they survive a wild-card round and get some home games, Petco [Park]’s energy could wake them up. Still a great bullpen.”

New York Mets

NL player: “The Mets are really good. I know they’ve struggled, but I’m banking on them getting hot like they did last postseason. Sometimes you get your worst baseball behind you, then find your groove. I like the Mets to do that.”

NL scout: “Their lineup 1-9 has to carry them. I’m not sure how they’ll piece it together on the mound, but sometimes you find rookie magic in an arm or two. If two of [Nolan] McLean, [Jonah] Tong and [Brandon] Sproat can come through, why not the Mets?

The AL’s team to beat is …

(Tigers, 5; Yankees, 3; Red Sox, 3; Astros, 2)

The voting was even tighter in the AL than in the NL — four teams received three or more votes — but it was the Blue Jays who edged out the competition with just one more vote than Detroit.

Home-field advantage could make the difference for the AL’s top two teams, both of whom dominate at home but hover around .500 on the road. The Tigers play so well at Comerica Park, where they are able to run rampant on the bases and go first to third on teams. And, of course, they feature Tarik Skubal at the top of their rotation. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays can get the newly renovated Rogers Centre rocking as hard as any stadium in the majors. That top seed in the AL is up for grabs down the stretch — and one of these two teams is highly likely to get it.

Why the Blue Jays

AL player: “They’re one of the most rounded teams in the AL. They have some experience, especially in the rotation, and have a little bit of everything in the lineup. That’s tough to contend with in a series. I just think they have the most complete team.”

AL scout: “As good as [Bo] Bichette, Vlad [Guerrero Jr.] and [George] Springer have been, it’s the contributions from guys from the left side of the plate like [Nathan] Lukes and [Addison] Barger which make Toronto really dangerous. They have some balance, which has eluded them.”

AL exec: “I love their team, but I question their bullpen. It hasn’t been very stout in the second half. Tommy Nance might be a guy to lean on.”

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AL player: “Detroit is high up on that list [of teams to beat]. They know how to win. That’s the biggest thing. They proved that last offseason. And they’ve turned that park into a nice home-field advantage. I know they go first to third better than anyone. That’s a key, playing in that ballpark.”

AL scout: “Sometimes seeing a team play a lot you can get a more negative opinion than what their record is, and sometimes it can be a more positive opinion than their record. With the Tigers, it’s the latter. And they already have a pretty good record.”

AL exec: “I’ve tried to fill out playoff rotations without a true ace. It’s really tough. So having Tarik Skubal makes all the difference for me. Unless he runs out of gas, Detroit is my pick.”

If not Toronto or Detroit, then who?

A case can be made for any of the wild-card entrants — depending on where Houston finishes, as it remains in a tight division battle with Seattle — to pull off an October upset with big game experience oozing from the Astros and Yankees lineups. New York can also slug, of course, while the return of Yordan Alvarez makes Houston’s offense ever so dangerous again.

The Red Sox, on the other hand, have made the postseason only once (2021) since winning the World Series in 2018. However, they feature a balanced lineup with playoff leadership in the form of Alex Bregman. Plus, Aroldis Chapman is about as good as it gets on the closer front.

New York Yankees

AL exec: “I think their bullpen will get hot, and [they] have enough power bats to get through a weaker field in the AL.”

Boston Red Sox

AL player: “It’s the Red Sox. They are playing good baseball. They have formidable pitching starting with [Garrett] Crochet and their lineup is cohesive and looks like they have a good time together. They know how to win with Bregman there.”

Houston Astros

AL player: “Everyone is forgetting that Yordan Alvarez missed most of the season. He’s a difference-maker. And when we played them, Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown were as good as any two pitchers. Houston is my pick.”

Everyone’s October sleeper pick: Seattle Mariners

Until recently, the Mariners hadn’t shown the league their best hand, ending up in the sleeper category because of it. Those we spoke to said Seattle simply has more upside available to it than any other team.

AL player: “A team that can get really hot that isn’t playing its best baseball is Seattle. That pitching staff is legit. [Cal] Raleigh hit 50 [home runs] but they have other guys that are built for that moment — the spotlight moment. Randy Arozarena and [Eugenio] Suarez are two of them. They’re built to win late.”

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NL player: “It’s one of those lineups where everyone is waiting for them to put it all together. Their rotation is very talented, and they have one of the best closers in the league. I think they’re one of those teams that, if they get hot at the right time, no one can beat them.”

AL exec: “Seattle has one of its best teams we’ve seen there in years. If there is a real sleeper in this entire playoff field, it’s the Seattle Mariners.”

AL exec: “Seattle is my ‘surprise’ team. I think a bad year for pitching in Seattle could get flipped on its head in the postseason with their starters picking it up.”

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September 15, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

Former Cred Execs Sentenced to Federal Prison For $150M Crypto Fraud

by admin September 1, 2025

A federal judge on Friday handed prison terms totaling nearly eight years to two former executives at failed crypto lender Cred, whose actions fueled one of crypto’s worst investor losses.

Legal experts told Decrypt that the sentences establish new precedents for executive accountability in crypto fraud cases.

Daniel Schatt, former CEO and co-founder of Cred LLC, received 52 months in federal prison, while the firm’s Chief Financial Officer Joseph Podulka was sentenced to 36 months.

Senior U.S. District Judge William Alsup handed down the sentences after both men pleaded guilty in May to wire fraud conspiracy charges.

The executives misled customers about Cred’s financial health while secretly funneling 80% of customer assets into high-risk microloans to Chinese gamers through an affiliated company.

When the scheme collapsed during 2020’s crypto market crash, more than 440,000 customers lost $140 million, now worth over $1 billion at current prices.

Ishita Sharma, a blockchain and crypto lawyer and managing partner at Fathom Legal, told Decrypt that federal sentencing patterns in crypto fraud cases now clearly differentiate based on several key factors.

“Schatt’s 52-month sentence is shorter than Sam Bankman-Fried’s 25 years but longer than several plea-based cases,” Sharma noted.

She said the sentences show courts weigh “loss amount, role in offense, and acceptance of responsibility,” with the 16-month gap between CEO and CFO reflecting “leadership hierarchy and culpability levels.”

“Courts must balance individual circumstances with sending clear signals to the market,” Sharma said, noting that guilty pleas reduce exposure but sentences must still reflect “the severity of betraying customer trust in an emerging industry.”

During a March 18, 2020 public session, Schatt told customers Cred was “operating normally” despite knowing the company faced a liquidity crisis.

The company lost an additional $9 million to a crypto scam and suffered further losses when Chief Capital Officer James Alexander allegedly appropriated approximately 255 BTC before being terminated.

Sharma said the Cred case reflects broader enforcement trends where “courts increasingly consider the reputational damage to the entire crypto sector when sentencing individual executives.”

She told Decrypt that judges now weigh whether sentences “properly deter similar misconduct while maintaining proportionality to the specific harm caused.”

For crypto platforms steering through regulatory uncertainty, Sharma said proactive disclosure is vital, urging a “‘regulation-by-analogy’ approach” that borrows from securities, banking, and commodities law.

“The key lesson from Cred is that opacity in gray zones invites aggressive enforcement—companies should over-disclose rather than exploit regulatory gaps,” she said.

Both men will begin serving their terms on October 28, followed by three years of supervised release. A restitution hearing is scheduled for October 7.

In addition to prison time, Judge Alsup ordered each man to pay $25,000 fines and serve three years of supervised release.

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September 1, 2025 0 comments

Ex-Cred execs receive combined 88-month prison term after $140m collapse

Crypto Trends

Cred execs receive prison term after $140 million collapse

by admin August 31, 2025

Two former executives from defunct crypto lender Cred LLC have been sentenced to a combined 88 months in federal prison for their roles in a wire fraud conspiracy.

Summary

Cred’s ex-CEO and CFO get 88 months for defrauding 6,000+ customers of $140m
Executives misled clients after COVID-19 crash exposed Cred’s risky strategy
Cred’s bankruptcy left over $1b in losses by today’s crypto valuations

The conspiracy left over 6,000 customers with more than $140 million in losses.

Senior U.S. District Judge William Alsup sentenced co-founder and former CEO Daniel Schatt to 52 months behind bars. Former CFO Joseph Podulka received a 36-month term.

Cred executives pleaded guilty in May

Both defendants pleaded guilty in May to wire fraud conspiracy charges stemming from their deceptive business practices at the San Francisco-based cryptocurrency lending platform.

The sentences cap a lengthy legal battle that began with Cred’s November 2020 bankruptcy filing.

Using current cryptocurrency valuations from August, the government estimates customer losses exceed $1 billion. This makes this one of the costliest crypto lending failures to date.

Cred operated as a cryptocurrency financial services provider and offered dollar loans against crypto collateral and accepted customer deposits in exchange for promised yield payments.

The company’s business model relied heavily on partnerships with overseas entities that prosecutors say customers were largely unaware of.

The fraud conspiracy took root in March 2020 when COVID-19 market turmoil triggered a Bitcoin price crash.

This event exposed fatal flaws in Cred’s risk management strategy and set the stage for the executives’ subsequent deceptive conduct.

COVID Crash Exposed Cred’s Risky Business Model

The March 2020 crypto market crash badly affected Cred’s operations. Within days of Bitcoin’s (BTC) price collapse, the company learned from its hedging partner that it was financially underwater and needed to liquidate all trading positions immediately.

The hedging relationship, which was meant to protect Cred from cryptocurrency price volatility, abruptly ended. This left the company with no protection against future market swings and exposed customers to risks they weren’t informed about.

Compounding these problems, Cred discovered that a Chinese company it relied on for generating customer yields could not repay tens of millions of dollars. Instead of disclosing these mounting financial problems, Schatt and Podulka actively misled customers about the company’s health.

During a public “Ask Management Anything” session on March 18, 2020, Schatt assured customers that Cred was “operating normally” despite being aware of the severe financial distress.

Both executives will also serve three years of supervised release and pay a fine of $25,000.

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August 31, 2025 0 comments

GameFi Guides

Bitcoin Infrastructure Gets $200-M Boost from Crypto Execs’ SPAC Push

by admin August 29, 2025

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure

A group of crypto executives has filed to raise $200 million through a blank-check company that plans to list on Nasdaq under the ticker BIXIU.

According to a regulatory filing, Cayman Islands-based Bitcoin Infrastructure Acquisition Corp Ltd will offer 20 million shares at $10 each and then search for a private company to merge with and take public.

Experienced Crypto Team

The company’s leaders bring long ties to bitcoin and crypto firms. Ryan Gentry, named CEO, spent five years leading business development at Lightning Labs.

He also worked as a lead analyst at Multicoin Capital. James DeAngelis was picked as finance chief; he has run finance teams at Kroll, a firm involved in several crypto bankruptcy cases.

Vikas Mittal, a director, is the chief investment officer at Meteora Capital, the sponsor behind this IPO and a backer of the 2023 SPAC that took Bitcoin Depot public.

Image: NASDAQ

According To The Filing, Focus Will Be On Infrastructure

Bitcoin Infrastructure says it will look for targets involved in wallets, custody, exchanges, lending protocols and tokenized financial instruments, as well as applications such as payments, DeFi and cross-border finance.

The filing frames the SPAC as a vehicle to bring infrastructure-style businesses into public markets rather than speculative consumer tokens.

Market Appetite For Crypto IPOs

Wall Street money has already flowed into crypto companies that went public this year, and SPACs are part of that push.

BTCUSD now trading at $109,827. Chart: TradingView

Bullish and Circle Internet Group are two recent public debuts tied to crypto. In just two days, two crypto-focused SPACs raised a combined $575 million: CSLM Digital Asset Acquisition Corp III closed a $230 million IPO and M3-Brigade Acquisition VI Corp closed $345 million.

A prior M3-Brigade SPAC took ReserveOne public in July. These moves show there is still capital available for firms that promise a path to public markets.

Baggage And Risks Remain

There are reasons for caution. Kroll, where DeAngelis worked with finance teams, faces a lawsuit over a data breach that touched creditors of FTX, BlockFi and Genesis.

The SPAC itself has not named a target yet. That leaves investors buying into a plan without a clear deal on the table.

Blank-check companies have been criticized for raising large sums and then racing to find a suitable merger, which can lead to rushed decisions.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Editorial Process for bitcoinist is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.

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August 29, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Subnautica 2 studio Unknown Worlds are now suing their former execs for stealing docs and sharing them with the press

by admin August 21, 2025

Time for your weekly helping of legal Subnaughtiness. Subnautica developers Unknown Worlds are suing recently departed director Charlie Cleveland, CEO Ted Gill, and studio co-founder Max McGuire for, amongst other things, stealing a bunch of game design files shortly before they were fired.

Or at least, an external legal firm acting on behalf of Unknown Worlds have filed suit. The firm in question – Richards, Layton, and Finger – are also representing parent company Krafton as they defend themselves against an earlier lawsuit brought by Cleveland, Gill and McGuire, who are accusing Krafton of dismissing them unfairly and delaying Subnautica 2’s release to avoid paying out a timed $250 million bonus.

Krafton 100% own Unknown Worlds, and are Subnautica 2’s publisher. So why isn’t this lawsuit coming from them? As PCGamer’s Andy Chalk suggests, the suspicion is that the lawyers have picked Unknown Worlds as plaintiff, rather than Krafton, because they think they’ll get more sympathy that way from Johnny Average Gamer. After all, everybody knows publishers are stinkheads.

A Krafton spokesperson has justified the situation as follows to Chalk: “While Krafton is the parent company, the contracts, intellectual property and confidential information at issue belong to Unknown Worlds. The defendants were executive leadership at Unknown Worlds, and their obligations, including confidentiality and fiduciary duties, were owed to that entity.”

The lawsuit itself broadly reiterates Krafton’s earlier claims that the three banished executives shirked their responsibilities toward Subnautica 2, and that they were only pushing to get the game released this year for the sake of that $250 million bonus (Cleveland, McGuire and Gill stood to receive 90% of it personally, but claim they planned to distribute most of their earnings to the rest of the Unknown Worlds team).

The document is full of redacted bits, excerpts from internal correspondence, and a bunch of screencaps from Reddit that are offered up as evidence that regular Subnautica players think the departed studio executives are at fault. Congratulations, redditor Plebius-Maximus – when they turn all this into a movie, you are probably going to be played by Justin Timberlake.

Cleveland is accused of being first to “stray” by leaving video game development in 2023 to “learn how to produce movies and explore other interests”. The lawyers say that by 2024, he had abandoned “all creative or other leadership roles with the Company”. As for McGuire, he’s said to have “spent 2022 and 2023 buried in the passion project of a new game, Moonbreaker, even well past the time that it became clear that Moonbreaker was a commercial failure”. The lawsuit accuses Gill, the CEO, of doing nothing about these “functional departures from game development of leadership”. It alleges that development “stalled” as a result, resulting in projected release date delays and a “degraded” project scope.

With regard to the much-ballyhooed $250 million “earnout”, the lawsuit accuses the three of trying to “publish whatever they could under the Subnautica 2 name on a timeline” that would ensure they received the money, despite the game falling “far short of the Company’s internally-set expectations for the early access release”. It claims that when Krafton rejected their proposals, the three executives threatened to self-publish Subnautica 2. It was this conversation, the lawsuit claims, that led to Unknown Worlds terminating their employment.

That much, we’ve approximately heard before. But the accusations of stealing documents from the company are new. On June 2nd and June 30th- shortly before he was fired – Gill allegedly exported his entire Unknown Worlds email account, triggering an IT alert. McGuire is said to have downloaded 99,902 company files shortly before his own termination, including documents from Moonbreaker’s development. Cleveland supposedly “downloaded 72,140 Company files” between June 26th and his termination on 1st July, only to be interrupted when Unknown Worlds cut off his access to the system in the course of his firing.

When the mass downloading of files was reported, Unknown Worlds apparently sent a cease & desist letter to the three, demanding that they return any confidential info in their possession. According to the lawsuit, the fired executives at first refused, and then proposed to delete files rather than turn over their devices for inspection. The lawsuit alleges that Gill, Cleveland and McGuire are both using this confidential information in their lawsuit against Krafton, and have also “improperly used or disclosed Confidential Information to members of the press”.

It’s not clear what this last part refers to, but it could be the internal Subnautica 2 planning document that appeared online in July. Krafton were happy to confirm that as authentic, which is understandable given that the document’s mention of stripped-out features supports their case for delaying the game.

You can read all 74 pages of the redacted Unknown Worlds lawsuit on Scribd. All of this is going to chug along for a while longer, I expect. For the moment, I will close by noting that the lawyers accuse Gill, Cleveland and McGuire of carrying out a “trifecta of mischief”, which is a magic phrase and also, sounds like the title of a Bond film. Perhaps they should cast Idris Elba as Plebius-Maximus – on reflection, I’m not sure Timberlake has the starpower for something this high octane. He can play Johnny Average Gamer instead.

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August 21, 2025 0 comments