Yahya 
After a stunning 3,000% rise over previous year, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has fined crypto companies and executives $4.7 billion in enforcement proceedings in 2024. According to a Sept. 9 Social Capital Markets article, its incredible rise mostly results from its hefty $4.47 billion settlement with Terraform Labs and former CEO Do Kwon in June, the biggest enforcement action the SEC has taken so far.
All the said enforcement actions were issued in 2023, while in 2024 the SEC issued 11 enforcement actions. But the overall fines gauged increment from $150,3 million of the prior financial year. This figure for $4,7 billion comprises of penalties, forfeitures, settlements, and prejudgment interest pushing to the realization of the idea that the SEC has been directing toward the handling of the massive, albeit fewer but bigger cases.
“This trend indicates a strategic shift by the SEC towards less but larger fines, with a focus on making high-impact enforcement actions that set precedents for the entire industry” the paper said.
The SEC has singled out several well-known companies over past years. One such example was the $1.24 billion action filed against Telegram in 2019, greatly raising the average penalty for that year. Following that, the average penalty between 2020 and 2023 went from $5 million to $35.2 million; until the Terraform Labs case boosted 2024’s average to above $420 million.
Other important enforcement actions include Ripple Labs, GTV Media Group, John and Tina Barksdale, accused with penalties ranging from $100 million, Thirty percent of the SEC’s penalties since 2020 were between $1 million and $10 million and forty-six percent of them were less than $1 million, despite these severe fines.
The proactive attitude of the SEC in 2024 indicates its aim to establish industry-wide standards, therefore implying more attention for important participants in the bitcoin field.
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