A new report from Cornerstone Research found that the US Securities and Exchange Commission brought 46 actions against crypto companies last year.
Since 2013, the agency has brought a total of 173 enforcement actions to crypto entities, with 2023 representing a new record.
"The 46 cryptocurrency-related enforcement actions brought by the SEC in 2023 represent the largest number of such actions brought by the SEC in a single year," the report found.
To put the figure in perspective, the SECOND it only presented 30 shares in 2022, so in 2023 there was an increase of more than 50%.
61% of the actions alleged that the entity violated securities laws, although 57% alleged fraud under the Securities or Exchange Act.
Read more: SEC Will 'Apply Precedent' When Making Spot Ether ETF Decisions: Peirce
“Relative to 2022, the number of litigation increased slightly, while the number of administrative procedures tripled,” the report says.
The SEC imposed sanctions worth $2.89 billion against cryptocurrency market participants by the end of 2023, with settlements exceeding $281 million last year.
He The agency's fiscal year operates from September to September.so the figures reported by the regulator may differ from Cornerstone's research.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler previously said the agency used law enforcement as a "tool" and was not meant to be "destiny."
Read more: Commissioner's remarks on bitcoin ETF approvals indicate contention among SEC leaders
In early 2023, market participants signaled that the SEC was rapidly accumulating enforcement actions. In May, Martin Leinweber, digital asset product strategist at MarketVector Indexes, said that Executioner “increased the number of law enforcement attorneys in SEC crypto unitshifting the focus from individual tokens to trading platforms that serve US investors.”
In June, Gensler's agency filed actions against Coinbase and Binance: two of the largest exchanges — alleging that both operated as unregistered exchanges and offered unregistered securities.
The SEC also filed his first enforcement action against NFTs in August, although commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda totally disagree with the action. Both commissioners voted yes, along with Gensler, to approve bitcoin ETFs.
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