The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has set a record-breaking $17.1 billion in monetary relief, a vast majority of which was pulled from enforcement actions against cryptocurrency firms.
As per the Dec. 4 release from the CFTC, the regulator has secured historical “monetary sanctions and relief,” largely driven by the FTX and Binance cases, which pulled billions in fines and civil penalties.
Fines garnered from the FTX case—the largest the CFTC has ever recovered—accounted for a majority of the $17.1 billion, as founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was ordered to pay a total of $12.7 billion in restitutions and disgorgements.
Binance’s disgorgement settlement totaled $2.7 billion, with an additional $150 million in civil penalties for its founder and former CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao.
Throughout 2024, another U.S. regulator agency, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has pulled $8.2 billion in fines, with over half, $4.6 billion, coming from crypto companies across 11 enforcement actions.
Of that figure, a $4.5 billion chunk is attributed to its enforcement action against Do Kwon’s Terraform Labs. Despite its unsuccessful litigations against Coinbase and Ripple (XRP), the SEC has under a dozen courtroom victories against crypto firms.
Now with a changing of the guard at the SEC, CFTC, and White House, all set to take place over the coming months with incoming U.S. President Donald Trump, aggressive enforcement actions against crypto may soon wind down.
However, that is as long as regulators and lawmakers don’t see more historical fraud and criminality in the space as it did with SBF, Do Kwon, and others.