Alongside the dizzying ups and downs that cryptocurrencies have seen over the past year, there has been no shortage of crime.

Bullish markets tend to encourage opportunistic thieves, with Chainalysis data revealing the amount stolen has reached $2.2 billion over the past 12 months.

Here you will find a summary of the crypto crimes that made headlines in 2024. One common theme? Justice for wrongs committed years ago.

1. Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted

We start with one of the biggest crypto crimes ever recorded: the collapse of FTX , which resulted in billions of dollars stolen from unsuspecting customers.

Following Sam Bankman-Fried's 2023 trial for fraud, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March.

Other members of the SBF's inner circle, who entered plea deals and testified against him, also received punishment.

Co-CEO Ryan Salame actually received a longer sentence than prosecutors recommended: seven and a half years.

Caroline Ellison — SBF's ex-girlfriend and CEO of trading firm Alameda Research — was sentenced to two years in prison, but was praised for her role in securing the billionaire's conviction.

But some executives have escaped prison. The exchange's beleaguered co-founder Gary Wang has been released, as has chief technical officer Nishad Singh.

SBF continues to appeal his sentence in Brooklyn, with a recent Forbes report saying he has started keeping a diary in prison.

2. Terraform Labs goes bankrupt

After wiping $40 billion off the cryptocurrency market in 2022 and causing a severe bear market that bankrupted other companies, Terraform Labs was hit with a $4.5 billion fine from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The settlement forced the troubled company to file for bankruptcy on its own.

But many issues remain unresolved – particularly regarding Terra founder Do Kwon, who remains in Montenegro after being detained while trying to flee the country on a fake passport.

He is wanted by both the United States and South Korea on criminal charges, but his extradition has been frozen pending appeal.

3. '4' for CZ

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has established himself as an influential figure in the cryptocurrency space as the CEO of Binance, the world’s largest exchange.

But it all came crashing down when he was sentenced to four months in prison earlier this year — a punishment stemming from the billionaire's 2023 guilty plea to money laundering violations.

Four has long been an important number for CZ. He often uses it as a shorthand to dismiss “FUD, fake news, and attacks.”

Critics said the judge was too lenient with the businessman, and he was released from a low-security prison in California in September.

It didn't take long for CZ to resurface at crypto conferences — appearing at Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai and the Middle East and North Africa Bitcoin Conference in Abu Dhabi.

4. Alex Mashinsky pleads guilty

FTX, Terraform Labs… who's next? Oh yeah, Celsius.

The founder of the troubled crypto lending company, Alex Mashinsky, has now pleaded guilty to commodities fraud and manipulating the price of the CEL token.

He could face up to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced in April next year — and has pledged not to appeal any shorter sentence.

Mashinsky told the judge he had given his customers “false comfort” and took full responsibility for his actions.

While Celsius bragged that “banks are not your friends” at the top of its game, it turns out users can’t trust the company either.

5. The OneCoin Story Continues

Some cryptocurrency crimes are still being prosecuted years after they occurred, such as the OneCoin Ponzi scheme that ran from 2014 to 2016.

The project's former lawyer was sentenced to four years in prison in April. Another co-defendant was sentenced to 10 years — and ordered to forfeit $392 million, along with a yacht, two Porsches and four properties.

But there is one person who has proven remarkably elusive since OneCoin collapsed like a house of cards: “Cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova.

She has been on the run for more than seven years, but is still wanted after defrauding clients out of $4.5 billion. The United States is currently offering a $5 million reward for information leading to her capture, but reports this year suggested Ignatova may have been murdered.

6. Bitfinex Money Launderers Jailed

Another long-running case that came to a conclusion this year involved the infamous 2016 Bitfinex hack.

Married couple Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan have been sentenced after admitting to laundering billions of stolen Bitcoins.

The cryptocurrency was worth $4.5 billion at the time of their arrest — with a record $3.6 billion recovered by US officials — but the BTC is now worth significantly more.

Lichtenstein received a five-year prison sentence for what was described as “the most sophisticated money laundering technique” ever investigated by the Internal Revenue Service.

Morgan — an amateur rapper known by the stage name “Razzlekhan” and who calls himself the “Alligator of Wall Street” — was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

The story has now been turned into a Netflix documentary, while the laptop that brought the duo down is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution.

7. Destabilization Campaign

There are also a lot of efforts to tackle the underground gangs laundering cryptocurrency behind the scenes.

In “Operation Destabilize,” British detectives dismantled two Russian networks that used digital assets to hide assets and move them around the world.

Drug dealers, arms dealers, hackers and wealthy tycoons are all said to have profited from these illegal activities.

8. SEC's X Account Hacked

While several high-profile social media accounts were targeted this year, the most serious attack occurred in January.

The SEC's X account was compromised, with a post falsely claiming that a Bitcoin ETF had been approved in the United States — days before the official announcement was made.

It was later discovered that the agency did not have two-factor authentication on this account.

In October, an Alabama man named Eric Council Jr. was arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit identity theft and access device fraud.

DYOR! #Write2Win #Write&Earn $BTC