3 weeks ago
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According to the press release, the “Commodity Futures Trading Commission” (CFTC) would have collected a record amount in 2024 thanks to crypto.
We are talking about a monetary relief of a whopping 17.1 billion dollars, which comes after a series of executive actions against various crypto companies.
In particular, the case of FTX is the one that has brought more money into the coffers of the authority. However, from next year the pressure in controls within the crypto sector could be more moderate.
Let’s see all the details below.
The CFTC announces monetary relief of 17.1 billion dollars: result of law enforcement actions in the crypto sector
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) of the United States published yesterday the report of monetary recoveries carried out in 2024, noting strong revenues from the crypto sector.
In the press room, the authority, tasked with overseeing the markets and protecting investors, outlined all the stages of its efforts and law enforcement actions.
In total, during the entire fiscal year, the CFTC collected the record amount of 17.1 billion dollars. This large amount refers to 2.6 billion dollars in civil monetary penalties (CMP) and 14.5 billion dollars in restitutions.
The cases of companies involved with cryptocurrency represented the majority of compensations and restitutions.
In particular, the “law enforcement” operations on the Binance and FTX exchanges are those that have had the most profitable monetary outcome for the Commission.
The monetary relief of the CFTC refers to the sums of money recovered through surveillance and control actions. These sums may include civil penalties, disgorgement (return of illegally obtained profits), and restitution (reimbursement to victims).
The money recovered is theoretically used to compensate the victims of financial fraud, returning the profits obtained illegally.
This point reflects the main focus of the CFTC, which is to offer protection to investors in a country so involved in scams and illicit market activities.
Entering into the merits of the results obtained in 2024, the president of the CFTC Rostin Behnam took the floor to praise the work of his team:
“The CFTC remains steadfast in its duties to protect clients and vigorously oversee the markets regulated by the CFTC, which are fundamental to the health of the U.S. economy. Misconduct in our jurisdictional markets is rarely limited, especially as these boundaries are continuously redefined by disruptive technology.”
The main executive actions of the CFTC and the victories in the disputes of the fiscal year 2024
As mentioned, the majority of the CFTC’s revenues come from multiple legal actions concerning companies operating in the crypto world.
The case of FTX represents absolutely the “largest compensation for victims and penalties in the history of the CFTC,” with 12.7 billion dollars recovered.
This sum takes into account the 8.7 billion dollars in compensation ordered to the related companies FTX and Alameda Research in addition to 4 billion dollars in compensation to the victims. Included in this category are the cases against the defendants Samuel Bankman-Fried, the co-founder of FTX Gary Wang, the co-CEO of Alameda Caroline Ellison. There was also a separate action against the co-owner of FTX Nishad Singh.
The executive actions of the CFTC also portentously concern the accusations against Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao.
The commission has reached an agreement with the company for having voluntarily evaded or attempted to evade the provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.
In total, the exchange has paid 1.35 billion dollars in civil monetary penalties, in addition to another 1.35 billion dollars in restitutions.
There are also fines against CZ for 150 million dollars and other small sanctions against his collaborators.
It is also worth highlighting the efforts of the commission in the case against the former CEO of Voyager for defrauding investors and failing to register the appropriate digital assets.
The entrepreneur would have led to the failure of the platform in addition to having managed an unregistered pool of commodities. The dispute is still currently ongoing.
In addition to these major activities, in 2024 the CFTC has also been active in many other cases related to crypto. For example, it investigated Seneca Ventures LLC et al. for running a Ponzi scheme involved in digital assets, recovering about 230 million dollars.
The authority also accused a defendant of implementing romantic scam tactics for 2.3 million dollars, with client funds intended for crypto trading.
Donald Trump and future horizons: from next year the pressure from the Commission on crypto companies could decrease
The executive actions of law enforcement by the CFTC can be viewed favorably by the crypto sector as they make the industry cleaner and more transparent.
Robust surveillance activities against fraud and ponzi schemes are indeed able to limit the presence of bad actors in this game, improving investor protection.
On the other hand, however, an excessively aggressive control can discourage the growth of this tech supply chain, given the still gray regulatory framework.
In 2025, the presence of “law enforcement” activities by the CFTC might decrease under the leadership of the new President Donald Trump.
The republican is fully supporting the cryptocurrency market, promising growth for U.S. cryptographic companies, with less federal oversight.
Consider that after the victory in the elections, the president of the SEC Gary Gensler (always against the crypto world) was forced to resign.
Trump himself pushed to give the CFTC the task of supervising the crypto markets, removing the arduous task from the SEC’s desk.
Probably this year’s record revenue of the Commission will not be replicated in 2025, unless there are major scandals in the crypto sector.
The CFTC will ease its grip on controls towards brokers that present commodity pools related to unregistered digital asset.
This does not mean that there will be the “Far West crypto” in the United States but that the regulatory aggressiveness that has characterized the mandate of the democrats will disappear.
All this translates into an incentive for new crypto companies and an increase in investments in the sector.
English (US) ·