Home / Cases / Largest crypto market manipulation cases Largest crypto market manipulation cases The largest manipulation enforcement actions in this library that touch digital assets, ranked by civil penalty. Crypto contributes a high number of actions and a comparatively low share of aggregate monetary relief.
Includes any action our classifier tagged with the crypto asset class, whether the technique is crypto-native or an older technique applied to a digital asset.
Amounts are as stated in the regulator's release, in nominal US dollars, and are not adjusted
for inflation. Amounts ordered are not amounts collected. Actions denominated
in other currencies are excluded rather than converted.
Largest crypto market manipulation cases — top 23 # Action Agency Filed Penalty Disgorgement Total relief 1 CFTC v. HSBC Bank USA (cash vs derivatives schemes, 2023) Cash Vs Derivatives Schemes , Insider Trading , Price Manipulation , Spoofing CFTC 2023-11-07 $1.7bn — $1.7bn 2 CFTC v. Sam Ikkurty (ponzi schemes, 2024) Ponzi Schemes CFTC 2024-09-03 $111m $37m $148m 3 CFTC v. unnamed respondents (cash vs derivatives schemes, 2022) Cash Vs Derivatives Schemes , Exchange Wash Trading , Insider Trading , Price Manipulation , Spoofing , Wash Trading CFTC 2022-10-20 $41m — $41m 4 CFTC v. unnamed respondents (ponzi schemes, 2021) Ponzi Schemes CFTC 2021-04-08 $32m $15.8m $47.8m 5 CFTC v. Abner Alejandro Tinoco (ponzi schemes, 2024) Ponzi Schemes CFTC 2024-07-26 $18.8m $6.3m $25m 6 CFTC v. Florida (price manipulation, 2023) Price Manipulation CFTC 2023-07-12 $11.7m $3.9m $15.6m 7 CFTC v. Coinbase Inc. (exchange wash trading, 2021) Exchange Wash Trading , Matched Orders , Wash Trading CFTC 2021-03-19 $6.5m — $6.5m 8 CFTC v. Jeremy Spence (ponzi schemes, 2022) Ponzi Schemes CFTC 2022-12-01 $2.8m — $2.8m 9 CFTC v. GBI (ponzi schemes, 2018) Ponzi Schemes CFTC 2018-10-18 $2.5m — $2.5m 10 CFTC v. Navinder Sarao (benchmark submission rigging, 2015) Benchmark Submission Rigging , Ponzi Schemes , Price Manipulation , Spoofing , Wash Trading CFTC 2015-11-07 $1.6m $551k $2.1m 11 CFTC v. Lim (paid stock promotion, 2023) Paid Stock Promotion CFTC 2023-11-21 $1.5m — $1.5m 12 CFTC v. Rashawn Russell (ponzi schemes, 2025) Ponzi Schemes CFTC 2025-02-10 $1.5m — $1.5m 13 SEC v. Quantstamp, Inc. (unregistered distributions, 2023) Unregistered Distributions SEC 2023-07-21 $1m $2m $3.5m 14 SEC v. Flyfish Club, LLC (chat group pumps, 2024) Chat Group Pumps , Unregistered Distributions SEC 2024-09-16 $750k — $750k 15 CFTC v. Daniel Fingerhut (wash trading, 2021) Wash Trading CFTC 2021-11-17 $600k $7m $7.6m 16 SEC v. Impact Theory, LLC (unregistered distributions, 2023) Unregistered Distributions SEC 2023-08-28 $500k — $500k 17 SEC v. Sparkster, Ltd. and Sajjad Daya (unregistered distributions, 2022) Unregistered Distributions SEC 2022-09-19 $500k $30m $30.5m 18 CFTC v. unnamed respondents (paid stock promotion, 2020) Paid Stock Promotion , Ponzi Schemes CFTC 2020-11-04 $450k — $450k 19 SEC v. BitClave PTE Ltd. (unregistered distributions, 2020) Unregistered Distributions SEC 2020-05-28 $400k $25.5m $25.9m 20 CFTC v. Jimmy Gale Watson (paid stock promotion, 2022) Paid Stock Promotion , Pump And Dump CFTC 2022-07-18 $290k — $290k 21 SEC v. Neil Bergquist; Up and Global SEZC; Coinme, Inc. (paid stock promotion, 2023) Paid Stock Promotion , Unregistered Distributions SEC 2023-04-28 $150k — $150k 22 SEC v. David Chong Kyi (insider trading, 2024) Insider Trading SEC 2024-12-17 $125k — $125k 23 SEC v. Tomahawk Exploration LLC and David Thompson Laurance (reverse merger schemes, 2018) Reverse Merger Schemes SEC 2018-08-14 $30k — $30k
Other rankings: largest penalties ·
largest spoofing penalties ·
longest sentences ·
most-charged individuals ·
biggest crypto cases ·
most active courts