{"id":44763,"date":"2021-06-22T13:51:44","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T10:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=44763"},"modified":"2025-08-31T18:33:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T15:33:47","slug":"elliptic-estimates-u-s-penalties-against-crypto-industry-total-2-5-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/elliptic-estimates-u-s-penalties-against-crypto-industry-total-2-5-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"Elliptic estimates U.S. penalties against crypto industry total $2.5 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The total penalties on crypto startups and individuals since 2009 amounted to $2.5 billion, according to Elliptic.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Elliptic\u2019s analysis of US regulatory enforcement actions since the birth of Bitcoin in 2009 shows that $2.5 billion in penalties have been imposed against firms and individuals dealing in crypto \u27a1\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/i3hoWhrcLI\">https:\/\/t.co\/i3hoWhrcLI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 elliptic (@elliptic) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elliptic\/status\/1406979158253637636?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 21, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Two-thirds of the amount went to the <span data-descr=\"U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission\" class=\"old_tooltip\">SEC<\/span> ($1.68 billion). The remainder was collected by the <span data-descr=\"Commodity Futures Trading Commission\" class=\"old_tooltip\">CFTC<\/span> ($624 million), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (<span data-descr=\"Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)\" class=\"old_tooltip\">FinCEN<\/span>) within the U.S. Treasury ($183 million), and the <span class=\"old_tooltip\">Office of Foreign Assets Control<\/span> ($0.6 million).\n<\/p>\n<p>Fifty-five percent of penalties relate to unregistered securities sales ($1.38 billion) and fraud ($928 million). Penalties for violations of anti\u2011money\u2011laundering laws totalled $183 million.<\/p>\n<p>The first sanctions against crypto-industry participants in the United States date back to 2014. The firm Trendon T. Shavers and Bitcoin Savings and Trust were ordered to pay $40 million for organising a Ponzi scheme with an estimated loss of 700,000 BTC.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"618\" src=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1-483-1024x618.png\" alt=\"Elliptic estimates U.S. penalties against crypto industry total $2.5 billion\" class=\"wp-image-139805\" srcset=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1-483-1024x618.png 1024w, https:\/\/u1f987.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1-483-300x181.png 300w, https:\/\/u1f987.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1-483-768x463.png 768w, https:\/\/u1f987.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1-483-1536x926.png 1536w, https:\/\/u1f987.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1-483.png 2046w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Data: Elliptic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The largest contribution to the total came from the <span data-descr=\"U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission\" class=\"old_tooltip\">SEC<\/span> settlement with Telegram over the TON token sale. Under the terms of the settlement, Pavel Durov\u2019s company agreed to pay the agency a fine of $18.5 million and to return $1.22 billion to investors.<\/p>\n<p>In the top five penalties, besides Telegram, is a $122 million penalty from FinCEN against the now-defunct BTC-e exchange and its alleged leader, Alexander Vinnik.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"613\" height=\"373\" src=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2-428.png\" alt=\"Elliptic estimates U.S. penalties against crypto industry total $2.5 billion\" class=\"wp-image-139807\" srcset=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2-428.png 613w, https:\/\/u1f987.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2-428-300x183.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 613px) 100vw, 613px\" \/><figcaption>Data: Elliptic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Elliptic emphasised that their analysis undermines the comparison of the crypto industry to the &#8220;Wild West&#8221;. Regulators have successfully used existing laws to halt illicit activity and bring its perpetrators to account, they said.<\/p>\n<p>Analysts concluded that such enforcement outcomes point to growing legitimacy and recognition of digital assets.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-06-21\/crypto-world-paid-billions-in-penalties-since-bitcoin-s-birth\">Bloomberg<\/a>, Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson said that penalties did not slow the industry but helped its growth.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>\u201cConsumers and businesses have become convinced of the transparency of regulation,\u201d<\/em> he explained.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Robinson expects increased scrutiny of overseas crypto exchanges.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>\u201cRansomware proceeds are laundered on these exchanges. Solving this problem will be crucial to reducing the number of ransomware attacks,\u201d<\/em> said the Elliptic co\u2011founder.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Earlier in March, media reported on an alleged investigation by the <span data-descr=\"Commodity Futures Trading Commission\" class=\"old_tooltip\">CFTC<\/span> into Binance.<\/p>\n<p>In June, the world\u2019s largest meat processor, JBS, paid hackers a ransom of <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/jbs-paid-11-million-in-bitcoin-to-ransomware-operators\">$11 million in Bitcoin<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, the DarkSide hackers attacked Colonial Pipeline. For restoring operations and recovering data, the company <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/media-colonial-pipeline-paid-hackers-a-5-million-ransom-in-cryptocurrency\">paid the attackers 75 BTC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p> Subscribe to ForkLog\u2019s news updates on <a href=\"https:\/\/vk.com\/forklogcom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">VK<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The total penalties on crypto startups and individuals since 2009 amounted to $2.5 billion. Elliptic analysts arrived at these estimates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1292,744,879,1535,269,1304,128],"class_list":["post-44763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-aml-kyc","tag-binance","tag-cftc","tag-elliptic","tag-fincen","tag-fines","tag-sec"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"20","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44763"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44765,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44763\/revisions\/44765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}