Regulator-Imposed Penalties Related to Crypto Total $2.5B Since 2009

Unregistered securities offerings and fraud account for bulk of charges

article-image

Source: Shutterstock

share

key takeaways

  • Nearly half of penalties came in June 2020 settlement involving Telegram Group’s alleged unregistered offering of digital tokens
  • Some say even more regulation will help broaden adoption of digital assets space

US regulators have imposed $2.5 billion in penalties against firms and individuals related to crypto since bitcoin was created in 2009, according to blockchain analytics provider Elliptic. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission have imposed penalties totaling about $1.7 billion, while the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and FinCEN collected $624 million and $183 million, respectively, according to the analysis. The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the latest agency to engage in enforcement actions against crypto businesses, has also seized $600,000.

Nearly $1.4 billion of the fines relate to unregistered securities offerings, while $928 million was due to fraud. An additional $183 million in penalties stemmed from anti-money laundering.

“Regulatory enforcement ensures that bad actors cannot thrive, and brings clarity on how regulations written decades ago are to be applied to new technologies,” Elliptic co-founder Dr. Tom Robinson wrote in a June 21 blog post . “In this way it is helping cryptoassets to gain greater acceptance and legitimacy.”

About half of the total penalties came last year when Telegram Group settled SEC charges that its unregistered offering of digital tokens, called Grams, violated federal securities laws, the report notes. The defendants agreed to return more than $1.2 billion to investors and to pay an $18.5 million civil penalty.

Elliptic’s analysis comes as some have called for increased regulation within the digital assets space. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, who joined the agency in April, has said that investors would benefit from more investor protection on crypto exchanges. 

Mike Novogratz, founder of crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital, said earlier this month that more regulation will comfort the growing number of institutional investors looking to get involved in cryptocurrencies, the Economic Times reported.

Jesse Powell, CEO of crypto exchange Kraken, said in an April interview with Fox Business News that US regulators have historically been among the most severe internationally. He noted that Kraken was mulling whether it should stay a US company or not. 

“They’re asking us to shut down products that they’re not able to shut down for international competitors, so they’re putting US companies at a disadvantage,” Powell said. “We may be forced out of the country by overregulation or by the enforcement guys not talking to the policy guys and not having kind of a national strategy on cryptocurrency.”

Tags

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.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

The convergence of DePIN and energy generation aims to address modern grid challenges by incentivizing distributed generation.

article-image

An improving outlook on tariffs is positive for cryptocurrencies, but a sustained rally is going to take movement on the regulatory front

article-image

Apollo’s Christine Moy explained how the “velocity” of innovation in crypto has led to the evolution of RWAs

article-image

Warren Buffett attributes his astounding investment returns to only about a dozen “truly good decisions” he’s made

article-image

This report has been corrected.

article-image

Stablecoin revenue a bright spot for the crypto exchange in Q1, as trading revenue dropped 19% quarter over quarter

article-image

Creators are being told to “shill” their tokens and cash in on their “cults”