The biggest crypto settlements in U.S. history are led by FTX and Alameda Research at $12.7 billion, Terraform Labs at $4.47 billion, and Binance at $4.3 billion, with Celsius, Genesis, and BlockFi each returning billions more to customers through bankruptcy. Across the top 25 enforcement actions since 2019, U.S. regulators have secured roughly $31.9 billion in penalties, disgorgement, and restitution.1CoinGecko. Top Crypto Enforcements US The pace of new cases has slowed sharply under the current SEC, but the record-setting resolutions already on the books are still working their way through creditor distributions in 2026.
FTX and Alameda Research: $12.7 Billion
The FTX case is the largest crypto enforcement action ever brought in the United States. In August 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a consent order requiring the collapsed exchange and its sister trading firm to pay $8.7 billion in restitution and $4 billion in disgorgement. The CFTC called it the largest recovery in the commission’s history.2CFTC. CFTC Obtains $12.7 Billion Consent Order Against FTX and Alameda The court found that FTX commingled and misappropriated customer funds despite telling users their assets were safely held in custody.3Bloomberg Law. FTX Trading, Alameda Ordered to Pay $12.7 Billion in CFTC Action
What makes FTX unusual is how much money is actually coming back. By September 2025, the FTX Recovery Trust had completed three distribution rounds, with U.S. customers receiving a cumulative 95% payout and smaller “convenience” claims receiving 120%.4PR Newswire. FTX Recovery Trust Third Distribution A fourth distribution of approximately $2.2 billion was scheduled for March 31, 2026. Overall, creditors are projected to recover between 119% and 160% of their petition-date claim values.5CCN. FTX Final Payout: ETH Holders May Recover More
Terraform Labs and Do Kwon: $4.47 Billion
The SEC’s case against Terraform Labs, the company behind the collapsed TerraUSD stablecoin and Luna token, ended with a $4.47 billion judgment approved on June 12, 2024. That total broke down to $3.6 billion in disgorgement, $467 million in interest, and a $420 million civil fine.6Banking Dive. Terraform Labs, Do Kwon to Settle With SEC for $4.47B Founder Do Kwon was personally ordered to transfer at least $204.3 million to the bankruptcy estate and was permanently banned from trading cryptocurrency.7SEC. SEC v. Terraform Labs
The bankruptcy court approved a liquidating Chapter 11 plan in September 2024 and established a Wind Down Trust to handle claims. The claims filing deadline passed in May 2025. Actual distributions to Terraform creditors had not yet begun as of early 2025, with the case still in claims reconciliation.7SEC. SEC v. Terraform Labs
Binance: $4.3 Billion Plus a Criminal Guilty Plea
The November 2023 Binance settlement is unlike the others on this list because it was criminal, not civil. The world’s largest crypto exchange pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Bank Secrecy Act, failure to register as a money transmitter, and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The DOJ described it as the largest corporate resolution that also included a CEO’s personal guilty plea.8U.S. Department of Justice. United States v. Binance Holdings Limited
Treasury’s slice alone was historic. FinCEN imposed a $3.4 billion civil penalty, the largest in its history, and OFAC added $968 million for sanctions violations. Investigators found Binance had executed more than 1.67 million trades between U.S. users and people in sanctioned countries including Iran, North Korea, and Syria, and had failed to file suspicious activity reports on over 100,000 transactions linked to groups including ISIS and Al Qaeda.9U.S. Department of the Treasury. Treasury Announces Global Settlement With Binance
Founder Changpeng Zhao was sentenced in April 2024 to four months in federal prison, well below the three years prosecutors requested and below the 12-to-18-month guideline range. He also paid $50 million personally and stepped down as CEO.10CNN. Binance Founder Sentenced to Four Months He reported to a low-security federal prison in Lompoc, California, in May 2024.11CNBC. Binance’s Ex-CEO Changpeng Zhao Begins Prison Sentence
The settlement installed two independent compliance monitors, one reporting to the DOJ and one to FinCEN, for a five-year term. Bloomberg reported in September 2025 that Binance was in discussions with federal prosecutors to end the DOJ monitorship early.12Bloomberg. Binance Nears Deal to Escape Compliance Monitor As of April 2026, both monitors remained in place, and Senator Richard Blumenthal sent letters to the DOJ and FinCEN requesting details on their effectiveness, citing reports of $1.7 billion in Iran-linked crypto flows still passing through the exchange.13Fortune. Senator Blumenthal Questions Binance Monitorships
Celsius Network: Over $3 Billion Distributed to Customers
Celsius Network, the crypto lender that froze customer withdrawals in June 2022, filed for Chapter 11 the following month. The reorganization plan was confirmed in November 2023 and became effective on January 31, 2024, when Celsius began distributing over $3 billion in cryptocurrency and cash.14Stretto. Celsius Network LLC Bankruptcy Case In January 2026, an additional $344.4 million was distributed, pushing total recoveries past the $3 billion mark.15White & Case. White & Case Helps Secure Distribution of US$344.4 Million A $70 million litigation fund was established to pursue claims against third parties, and preference recovery efforts targeting former account holders have added another $160 million.
Genesis Global Capital: $4 Billion Distributed, Plus $2 Billion to New York
Genesis Global Capital, the lending arm of Digital Currency Group, filed for bankruptcy in January 2023. It settled SEC charges for $21 million in early 2024 over the unregistered sale of securities through the Gemini Earn program.16SEC. SEC Settles Charges Against Genesis Global Capital In May 2024, Genesis separately settled fraud allegations with the New York Attorney General for $2 billion.17Banking Dive. Genesis Crypto Completes Restructuring, Begins Payouts
The bankruptcy court confirmed the Chapter 11 plan in May 2024, and by August the company began distributing approximately $4 billion in digital assets and dollars. Recoveries varied sharply by asset: U.S. dollar and stablecoin creditors received 100%, altcoin creditors about 88%, ether creditors about 66%, and bitcoin creditors about 51%, all measured in-kind. More than 225,000 Gemini Earn users received full in-kind repayment totaling about $2.2 billion between May and June 2024.18Cleary Gottlieb. Genesis Completes Debt Restructuring
BlockFi: 100% Recovery at Petition-Date Values
BlockFi, which collapsed in the wake of FTX, confirmed its Chapter 11 plan in October 2023 and reached a settlement with the FTX and Alameda estates valued at up to $874.5 million.19Yahoo Finance. BlockFi Settles With FTX, Alameda Estates In July 2024, BlockFi announced it would distribute 100% of the dollar value of customers’ claims as they stood at the November 2022 petition date. By April 2025, 97% of U.S. customers had claimed their distributions; only 43% of non-U.S. customers had done so.20CoinDesk. BlockFi Appeals to Creditors to Claim Distributions The claims deadline was May 15, 2025, after which unclaimed assets would be redistributed to other unsecured creditors.
Worth noting: a 100% recovery at petition-date values is not the same as being made whole in crypto terms. Customers were paid out based on dollar valuations from the depths of the 2022 bear market, not the much higher prices that followed.
Coinbase: $100 Million to New York
Not every major settlement involves a company that collapsed. In January 2023, the New York Department of Financial Services reached a $100 million settlement with Coinbase over what regulators called “wide-ranging and long-standing” failures in the exchange’s anti-money laundering program. Half was a direct penalty; the other $50 million was a required investment in compliance improvements.21New York DFS. DFS Announces $100 Million Settlement With Coinbase
DFS found that Coinbase had treated customer onboarding as a “check-the-box exercise,” had accumulated more than 100,000 unreviewed transaction monitoring alerts by late 2021, and had filed suspicious activity reports months late. The agency also identified a failure to screen roughly 1,600 institutional customers for sanctions and politically exposed persons. A 2021 phishing scam that cost New York customers $1.5 million was reported to regulators five months after the fact, despite a 72-hour reporting rule.21New York DFS. DFS Announces $100 Million Settlement With Coinbase An independent monitor installed in early 2022 was required to stay for at least an additional year under the consent order.
Other Recent Settlements Worth Knowing
Uphold and CredEarn: $5 Million (2026)
In April 2026, the New York Attorney General settled with Uphold HQ Inc. for $5 million over its promotion of CredEarn, a yield product marketed to retail customers between 2019 and 2020 as a “low-risk” savings product. The AG’s office said the underlying assets were pooled into uncollateralized microloans to borrowers in China with no credit histories. When CredEarn’s developer, Cred LLC, went bankrupt in November 2020, more than 6,000 Uphold users lost a combined $34 million.22Crowdfund Insider. New York AG Reaches $5 Million Settlement With Uphold Uphold must distribute the $5 million directly to approximately 2,200 affected investors and register as a broker. The company admitted the factual findings but did not admit liability.23The Block. New York AG Settles for $5 Million With Uphold
TradeStation Crypto: $3 Million Combined
TradeStation Crypto settled with regulators across 51 U.S. jurisdictions for $1.5 million over allegations that its crypto interest-earning program, which ran from roughly August 2020 to June 2022, was an unregistered securities offering. A parallel SEC settlement imposed an identical $1.5 million penalty.24California DFPI. California Secures $1.5 Million Multistate Settlement Against TradeStation25New Jersey OAG. AG Platkin Announces Settlement With TradeStation Crypto
Block.one/EOS: $24 Million (2019)
One of the first major crypto settlements involved Block.one, the company behind the EOS blockchain, which paid the SEC $24 million in September 2019 for conducting an unregistered initial coin offering that raised several billion dollars between 2017 and 2018. The company sold 900 million tokens without registering the offering or qualifying for an exemption. Block.one consented to the order without admitting or denying the findings.26SEC. SEC Charges Block.one for Unregistered ICO
Active Fraud Cases: Unicoin and PGI Global
Fraud cases have continued even as the SEC backs off registration-based enforcement. In May 2025, the SEC charged Unicoin, Inc. and four executives with an offering fraud scheme. The agency alleged the company told more than 5,000 investors it had sold over $3 billion in rights certificates for crypto tokens that were “asset-backed” by billions in real estate and pre-IPO equity, and falsely claimed the certificates were “SEC-registered.” The SEC said Unicoin actually raised no more than $110 million, and the underlying assets were worth a fraction of what was represented.27SEC. SEC Charges Unicoin and Executives With Offering Fraud General counsel Richard Devlin consented to a $37,500 penalty without admitting or denying the allegations; the case against the remaining defendants is ongoing.28SEC. SEC v. Unicoin, Inc.
The SEC also brought a case against PGI Global, alleging that founder Ramil Palafox orchestrated a $198 million fraud involving “membership” packages that promised guaranteed returns from crypto and foreign exchange trading. More than $57 million was allegedly misappropriated.29SEC. SEC Enforcement 2025 Update
Why the Pipeline of New Cases Has Slowed
The scale of past settlements masks a sharp change in direction. In fiscal year 2025, the SEC brought just 13 cryptocurrency-related enforcement actions, down 60% from the 33 brought in 2024, and total monetary penalties against crypto firms fell to $142 million, less than 3% of the prior year’s total. The Commission dismissed seven pending cases that had been filed under former Chairman Gary Gensler, including actions against Coinbase, Binance, Consensys, and Cumberland DRW.29SEC. SEC Enforcement 2025 Update Investigations into Gemini, Uniswap Labs, and OpenSea were closed even after Wells notices had been issued.30Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance. SEC Enforcement 2025 Year in Review
In March 2026, the SEC and CFTC issued a joint interpretation formally categorizing most crypto assets as non-securities. The framework sets up five categories (digital commodities, digital collectibles including meme coins, digital tools, stablecoins, and digital securities) and clarifies that only the last triggers full securities registration. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said the guidance acknowledges that “most crypto assets are not themselves securities” and that “investment contracts can come to an end.”31SEC. SEC Clarifies Application of Federal Securities Laws to Crypto Assets
The practical takeaway for anyone tracking this area: outright fraud still draws record penalties, and the biggest cases on the books are still paying out through 2026. The registration-based campaign that drove many of the earlier settlements is largely over.