On December 13, 2022, Samuel Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO of worldwide cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was charged with two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, two counts of wire fraud, mega market darknet and one depend of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Last week, Bankman-Fried, referred to colloquially as "SBF," was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to repay more than $11 billion.

Lots has happened on the earth of cryptocurrencies between that December indictment and SBF’s sentencing. Listed here are 5 things that took place on the earth of crypto between that day and this one.

Bitcoin Boomed

By the time Bankman-Fried was charged in December of 2022, the value of bitcoin had been in a dizzying plunge for almost a 12 months. Topping out at just over $59,700 in November 2021, bitcoin was buying and selling at $16,seven hundred by mid-December of the following 12 months.

Since then, cryptocurrencies usually and bitcoin in specific, have been on a tear. Bitcoin is up nearly 3x from these mid-December lows, buying and selling north of $66,000. Ethereum is up 2.8x from its December lows.

Observers imagine that the current increase in cryptocurrencies is completely different from the previous growth which in many ways put crypto on the cultural map. A part of this has to do with the "cleaning out" of dangerous actors similar to SBF (and others), as well as growing regulatory consideration of the reliable objectives of the nice ones. And while this typically has contributed to its share of complications, it has additionally led to one of the promising developments in crypto: the launch of spot bitcoin ETFs.

The Spot ETFs are Here!

Probably the most anticipated developments in the cryptocurrency area was the launch of U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs. And inside a month of Bankman-Fried’s charging, those spot bitcoin ETFs arrived.

As we reported in Tales from the Crypto in January, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accredited of eleven spot bitcoin alternate-traded funds. The ETFs had been an instantaneous hit; digital asset manager CoinShares famous that more than $870 million poured into the new funds in the first three days. And like the underlying asset they track (and monitor higher than previous bitcoin ETFs that were based on bitcoin derivative holdings), these funds have soared within the weeks and months since inception.

Crypto Crime Collapses

"Collapse" could also be a bit strong, but "2023 noticed a big drop in worth received by illicit cryptocurrency addresses," according to a report issued earlier this 12 months by Chainalysis. The report - 2024 Crypto Crime Trends - noted that from a high of $39.6 billion in 2022, the overall cryptocurrency worth acquired by illicit cryptocurrency addresses dropped to $24.2 billion in 2024, just a bit of over 2021’s $23.2 billion mark. The report additionally showed a decline within the illicit share of all cryptocurrency transaction volume from 0.42% in 2022 to 0.34% in 2023. A decline in each crypto scamming and hacking income in 2023 was also reported.

It’s still a harmful world on the market. The Chainalysis report additionally confirmed a rise in ransomware and darknet market exercise and expressed specific concern about the former. "The growth of ransomware income is disappointing following the sharp declines we lined last 12 months," the report reads, "and suggests that maybe ransomware attackers have adjusted to organizations’ cybersecurity enhancements." The report hyperlinks to its previous reporting on this development.

More Crypto Indictments

SBF was not the only crypto entrepreneur to run afoul of the law over the past yr and half since his arrest in late 2022. Alex Mashinsky, co-founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency lending platform, Celsius Network, was indicted and arrested in July of 2023 on fees of fraud and market manipulation. Mashinsky’s arrest adopted a civil lawsuit filed against him by the Attorney General of latest York accusing him of securities fraud while serving as Celsius CEO. The SEC has also charged Mashinsky with violating Federal safety laws. Mashinsky has pled not guilty to the criminal costs.

Changpeng Zhao, co-founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange giant Binance, was another high-profile participant in the crypto house who ran into main authorized points in 2023. Zhao launched Binance in 2017 and, within eight months, grew the company into the biggest cryptocurrency alternate on the planet by buying and selling quantity. Due to this, nonetheless, regulators began to pay nearer consideration to Zhao and Binance and, by 2023, the scrutiny had yielded consequences. In June, the SEC sued him and his change for violations of U.S. securities rules. By November, Zhao had agreed to resign from Binance and pay a advantageous of $50 million as a part of his responsible plea. The change additionally pled guilty and paid $4.3 billion in fines.

Ripple Wins and Loses Against SEC on XRP

While the time between December 2022 and March 2024 represented in many cases the correcting hand of authority placing some restraint on the trade, there have been some situations by which it was authority that found itself restrained. In July of last yr, for example, a Federal judge sided with Ripple in its argument in opposition to the Securities and Exchange Commission with regard to the status of its token XRP. The SEC had argued that XRP was a security and thus topic to its jurisdiction. Ripple, however, contended that XRP was not a security when sold on the open market via crypto exchanges.

Unfortunately for Ripple, the decide additionally dominated that Ripple’s institutional sales of XRP did symbolize unregistered securities offerings. And this week we learned the extent of the punishment the SEC wants to mete out for this offense: $1.Ninety five billion. In an announcement on X, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse was unequivocal in his opinion on what the SEC is asking for:

"The SEC plans to ask the judge for $2B in a case that concerned no allegations (let alone findings) of fraud or recklessness," Garlinghouse wrote. "There is totally no precedent for this.