Crypto companies shelled out $19 billion to US regulators in 2024, with more settlements expected to come.
Regulators in the United States have so far collected a whopping $19 billion from crypto companies that have settled with them this year, according to a CoinGecko report. With more than two months to go before the calendar flips, the country’s regulatory agencies may add more to the total settlements received.
2023 saw crypto firms settling for a little less than $11 billion. This year’s eight settlements clear that number. Regulators this year collected 78% more than what they did last year. However, 2023’s settlements represented a whopping 8,327% increase, indicating increased regulatory scrutiny over the digital asset industry.
The collapsed FTX exchange and also collapsed sister firm Alameda Research contributed the most this year, as they settled with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for $12.7 billion a couple of months ago. “While this judgment does not include CFTC’s lawsuit against individual company executives, the $12.70 billion settlement will go towards repaying the $11.20 billion that FTX is estimated to owe customers and creditors,” the report read.
The second-biggest settlement came from Terraform Labs settling with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for $4.47 billion. The firm went to ruins after its ecosystem imploded due to its UST stablecoin getting depegged from the dollar value in 2022. Genesis took third place for its $2 billion settlement with the Office of the Attorney General (OAG). The company faced severe liquidity issues due to making bad investments.
Looking at the biggest crypto settlements of all time, FTX remains at the top, followed by Celsius, which paid $4.7 billion late last year for going insolvent and losing investor funds via bad investments, like Genesis. Binance also paid heftily last year, with Binance paying $4.3 billion for violating anti-money laundering laws and violating sanctions.
Binance Is the Only Company Operational After a Settlement of Its Magnitude
“Binance’s settlement is a landmark win for US regulators by being the only billion-dollar settlement given to an operating crypto company so far, despite ranking only fourth in monetary value,” the CoinGecko report added. “The leading global crypto exchange agreed to plead guilty in November 2023, to resolve lawsuits with multiple US regulators including the Department of Justice (DOJ), Treasury Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).”
US regulators have collected a total of $31.92 billion in “top settlements” from 25 crypto companies since day one, with 2024 itself amounting to close to two-thirds.
