Share this article
Over a Fifth of Cases in CFTC’s 2022 Crackdown Were Crypto-Related
The federal regulator’s annual enforcement results revealed that over 20% of the CFTC’s enforcement actions in 2022 involved crypto.
Updated Oct 21, 2022, 7:17 p.m. Published Oct 20, 2022, 9:00 p.m.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) brought 82 enforcement actions in fiscal year 2022 – a whopping 22% of which were filed against crypto-related entities.
According to the federal regulator’s annual enforcement report published Thursday, the CFTC celebrated several of its big wins from the fiscal year, including filing charges against Tether and Bitfinex, which settled for a combined $42.5 million last October.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
The CFTC’s report also highlights some of its other high-profile actions, many of which have not yet been resolved, including charges against decentralized finance (DeFi) exchange Digitex, which it has accused of operating an illegal futures market, and against anonymous members of Ooki DAO, who have been accused of offering illegal, off-exchange tokenized margin trading and lending services.
Read more: CFTC’s Ooki DAO Action Shatters Illusion of a Regulator-Proof Protocol
While many in the crypto industry see the CFTC as the “good cop” of crypto regulation and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as the “bad cop,” CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam seems eager to shed his agency’s reputation as being easy on crypto crime.
“In the face of unprecedented financial market conditions directly impacting American consumers, emerging technological disruption and growing retail investor participation, the CFTC continues its unwavering commitment to a robust enforcement program ensuring the markets we oversee are open, transparent, fair and competitive,” Behnam wrote in a press statement.
“This FY 2022 enforcement report shows the CFTC continues to aggressively police new digital commodity asset markets with all of its available tools. I personally thank the Enforcement Division’s hardworking and dedicated leadership team and staff,” he said.
Behnam has boasted that his agency – over the past decade – has brought in about $1.5 billion a year in fines from its enforcement actions, which he said was a pretty good "return on investment" for an average budget of about $240 million.
"That's pretty good for the taxpayer, and that's what my response is to anyone who says we're a light-touch regulator," he said last week.
Jesse Hamilton contributed reporting.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
40% of Canadian Crypto Users Flagged for Tax Evasion Risk, Canadian Tax Authority Reveals
Canada’s tax agency says legal gaps limit its ability to track crypto-related income as it recovers $100 million through audits and pushes for tighter regulation.
What to know:
- The Canadian Revenue Agency reports that 40% of crypto platform users are evading taxes or are at high risk of non-compliance.
- CRA's cryptoasset program has 35 auditors working on over 230 files, resulting in $100 million in taxes collected over three years.
- New legislation to combat financial crimes, including crypto tax evasion, is expected by Spring 2026, as announced by the Minister of Finance.
Top Stories
