16 agreements completed in two years indicate a more intense regulatory focus

FTX and its sister company Alameda faced the largest crypto-related enforcement by US regulators, with a staggering $12.7 billion in combined settlement charges.

According to CoinGecko’s findings, this amount tops the list of penalties imposed on cryptocurrency companies, highlighting the regulatory approach to the now-bankrupt exchange. Meanwhile, Binance’s $4 billion settlement is notable as the largest penalty against an operating crypto company. However, it only ranks as the fourth largest overall.

Crackdown Post FTX Intensified

The crypto data aggregator, in its report released earlier this week, revealed that 25 US crypto enforcement actions have resulted in settlements exceeding $10 million each, with penalties totaling ‘these cases totaling nearly $32 billion, indicating a growing crackdown on the industry.

Of the top 25 crypto enforcement actions in the US, 16 settlements have been finalized in the past two years. This was essentially indicative of heightened regulatory oversight following the dramatic collapse of FTX, which was led by disgraced executive Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) in late 2022.

The data suggests that in 2023 alone, US regulators settled eight large lawsuits, totaling $10.87 billion in settlement value, a record amount and a staggering 8,327.1% year-over-year increase previous

Several wins for US regulators

From 2019 to 2022, US regulators reached eight significant settlements in major crypto lawsuits. The first came in late 2019 when the SEC reached a $24 million settlement with Block.one, the company behind EOS, for selling unregistered securities.

In 2020, the SEC won two additional cases: BitClave agreed to pay $29.34 million in May, and Telegram was fined $1.24 billion for its Gram token offering, which included a disbursement of $1.22 billion dollars and a civil penalty of $18.5 million.

During the 2021 bull market, regulators recorded three notable settlements, starting with stablecoin issuer Tether, which settled with the New York attorney general for $18.5 million and then settled of $41 million with the CFTC regarding USD support claims for its USDT stablecoin.

The CFTC also penalized Tether’s parent company, Bitfinex, with a $1.5 million settlement for illegal transactions. Additionally, crypto exchanges Poloniex and BitMEX settled their lawsuits for $10.39 million and $100 million, respectively, in August 2021.

Meanwhile, in 2022, crypto lender BlockFi and crypto exchange Bittrex settled for $100 million and $29 million, respectively, with the SEC and the Treasury Department.

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