New York Attorney General Issues Call for Crypto Industry Whistleblowers

New York Attorney General Letitia James has also called on spurned crypto investors to reach out, signaling potential enforcement actions

article-image

NYAG Letitia James; Source: Shutterstock

share
  • New Yorkers let down by crypto platforms are encouraged to contact the Attorney General’s office
  • “Investors were promised large returns on cryptocurrencies, but instead lost their hard-earned money,” New York’s Attorney General wrote

New York Attorney General Letitia James has called on crypto buyers in the state who’ve been “deceived” or affected by the recent crash to contact the Investor Protection Bureau.

The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) wants to hear from New Yorkers locked out of their digital asset accounts, unable to access their investments or otherwise done wrong by crypto startups, it said in an alert issued on Monday.

Crypto industry workers have also been encouraged to file whistleblower complaints if they have witnessed misconduct.

The alert comes after crypto markets faced contagion following TerraUSD’s crash and the collapse of high-profile lenders such as Celsius and Voyager Digital. Withdrawal freezes on these networks, among others, have blocked investors from accessing their funds as firms work on their insolvency issues.

“The recent turbulence and significant losses in the cryptocurrency market are concerning,” James wrote in a statement. “Investors were promised large returns on cryptocurrencies, but instead lost their hard-earned money.”

But despite massive liquidations across May and June, demand for crypto assets remains relatively strong.

Cryptocurrency’s collective market value jumped more than 8% over the past week, now sitting at just under $1.1 trillion, although that’s still down by more than half over the year to date. Bitcoin’s price is up more than 7%, Blockworks Research shows, while ether has risen 12%.

Eliézer Ndinga, director of research at 21Shares, told Blockworks in an interview that given recent price developments and the fact that there have been more inflows into bitcoin exchange-traded products, there is a lot more market enthusiasm on social media. 

“Many investors are in the money, and that’s basically a testament to the fact that we are outside the capitulation zone,” he said.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Flashnote Template (41).png

Research

We believe that few tokens at the application layer are diverging more from fundamentals than ZORA. Its fully-diluted P/S sits at 90x, pricing significant growth despite a consistent decline in weekly revenues since late July. We foresee an 80% decrease in protocol net margins due to a recent update to the fee structure that reduces trading fees from 3% to 1%, while boosting creators’ portion of the fee split. ZORA’s supply overhang also represents a near-term headwind, with 45% of ZORA’s supply (4.5B tokens or $350M at current prices) earmarked for the team & investors beginning to unlock on October 23, 2025 (36-month linear vesting schedule).

article-image

Insiders have the best information — markets should be willing to pay for it

article-image

The CFTC-regulated exchange is opening doors to crypto builders and traders through grants, partnerships, and new deposit options

by Blockworks /
article-image

DFS tells banking organizations to integrate blockchain monitoring tools to curb money laundering and sanctions risks

by Blockworks /
article-image

New short and long-term priorities include L1 gas boosts, ZK-EVMs, privacy reads, and a lean, quantum-resistant Ethereum

by Blockworks /
article-image

The new stBTC token redistributes Bitcoin gas fees to users, creating liquid yield without inflation or lockups

by Blockworks /
article-image

The reserve will collect protocol revenues to back W token, alongside new yield and unlock schedule

by Blockworks /