The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) set a new record for penalties and fines from its enforcement actions in fiscal year 2024, primarily due to a massive settlement with cryptocurrency firm Terraform Labs. The agency collected $8.2 billion in financial remedies for the year ending Sept.
30, which is the highest amount in SEC history, despite a 26% decrease in the number of cases to 583. Over half of the total came from the SEC’s court win against Terraform and its former CEO, Kwon, who paid a $4.47 billion settlement after being found liable for fraud over its blockchain ecosystem’s collapse in 2022, which wiped billions of dollars.
Without Terraform’s fine, the SEC would have collected $3.72 billion, which would have been its worst year for financial remedies since 2013. The SEC’s total fines and penalties for 2024 jumped by 65.5% from 2023. In all, the agency collected $2.1 billion in penalties and a record $6.1 billion in disgorgement, the return of illicit profits to harmed investors.
The SEC has taken a hard line against crypto companies under Gensler, with the number of its crypto-related enforcement actions peaking last year at 46. Its crypto cases dropped to 11 in 2024, but fines related to the SEC’s crypto actions shot up over 3,000% due to Terraform’s settlement. The US crypto industry is hoping the SEC’s crackdown will end as Trump promised to ease regulatory enforcement on the space.
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<p>The post Record-Breaking Fines for SEC Enforcement Actions in 2024 first appeared on CoinBuzzFeed.</p>