Crypto news

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has completed another stage of proceedings related to the collapse of the FTX empire. The court has officially approved settlements with former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and exchange co-founder Gary Wang. Both defendants have been banned from conducting trading operations on markets under the commission's jurisdiction for a period of five years.

However, the sanctions do not end there. Ellison faces a ten-year ban on registration with the CFTC, while for Wang this period is eight years. Notably, the countdown for all restrictions begins in December 2022 — the moment when the initial court orders were issued. Thus, the formal term of the bans has already partially expired, but their legal force remains in full effect until the end of the established period.

A key aspect of this settlement is the absence of additional monetary fines. The commission decided not to seek financial penalties, which is directly motivated by the active cooperation of both defendants with the investigation. This underscores the regulator's strategic approach: in cases of large-scale financial crimes, priority is given to obtaining evidence and uncovering schemes, rather than maximizing compensation from individual participants.

To me, this CFTC move looks logical but telling. On the one hand, it demonstrates that even key prosecution witnesses do not escape accountability — their role in the FTX collapse did not go unpunished. On the other hand, the leniency toward Ellison and Wang signals to the market: regulators are willing to make concessions to those who help expose systemic violations. In the long term, this could encourage other insiders to cooperate, which is more important than one-off fines.

Nevertheless, the question of the full picture remains open: the main organizers of the scheme, including Sam Bankman-Fried, have already faced harsher penalties, but restoring trust in the crypto industry will require many more such proceedings.