Lawsuits will cost crypto companies $19 billion by 2024, FTX and Alameda biggest losers

A new report from CoinGecko shows that US authorities will siphon more than $19 billion in capital from crypto companies through court settlements by 2024.

$12.7 billion from FTX and Alameda

The largest amount was of course taken from FTX and Alameda Research. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) managed to seize $12.7 billion from those parties.

That amount will be used to reimburse former users of the exchange platform. Of the $12.7 billion, an estimated $11.2 billion will go back to FTX’s users and other creditors.

The second highest amount came from Terraform Labs, which agreed to pay $4.5 billion after a jury was unanimous on the debt of the company and its founder Do Kwon in a lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC) filed fraud case.

Genesis paid $2 billion in settlement fees after the Office of the New York Attorney General accused the company and other defendants of hiding more than $1.1 billion in user losses within Gemini Earn.

Eight settlements for $19.45 billion by 2024

All told, US authorities collected $19.45 billion across eight different settlements in 2024, according to CoinGecko. That amount represents an increase of 78.9% compared to 2023.

“Given that US authorities appear to have no intention of slowing down their crackdown on the crypto industry, 2024 could be on track to collect more settlements than last year,” CoinGecko wrote.

That sounds as if the American authorities are engaged in some kind of manhunt against crypto companies. But don’t forget that it is logical that fraud cases such as those of FTX, Terraform Labs and Genesis are included.

That misery has no place in the industry, is harmful to Bitcoin’s reputation and should be left with tar and feathers.