The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken significant enforcement actions against cryptocurrency firms and their executives in 2024, totaling nearly $4.7 billion. This marks an astounding increase of over 3,000% from the previous year’s total of $150.3 million. The major catalyst for this surge was a landmark settlement of $4.47 billion with Terraform Labs and its former CEO in June, making it the largest enforcement action in the SEC’s history.
In total, the SEC executed 11 enforcement actions this year, but notably, this reflects 19 fewer actions compared to the previous year. The dramatic rise in total fines indicates a strategic shift within the SEC’s approach. The focus seems to have transitioned towards pursuing fewer but substantially higher-profile cases, which aim to set important precedents across the cryptocurrency landscape.
The SEC’s previous high-profile case against Telegram in 2019 saw its average fine increase dramatically, contributing to an uptick that drove the average fine closer to $70 million that year. Over the next few years, the average fine fluctuated between $5 million and $35.2 million until the recent high-profile Terraform Labs case elevated this figure to more than $420 million in 2024.
Among those targeted by the SEC this year are notable companies and individuals such as GTV Media Group, Ripple Labs, and fraudsters John and Tina Barksdale, all of whom faced enforcement amounts exceeding $100 million. Despite the high-profile cases, a substantial portion of SEC-imposed fines since 2020 — 46% —have remained below $1 million, while 30% have been between $1 million and $10 million, illustrating a diverse range of enforcement across the industry.
