In April, the SEC settled charges against Francis Decker, the Prager Metis partner who led FTX’s audits, over failures to meet professional auditing standards.
In February, a jury found Ismael Zarco Sanchez liable for securities fraud and registration violations over his role in the $300 million CryptoFX Ponzi scheme. In July, a court ordered Michael Noble to pay $1.07 million in a case over his role promoting BitConnect’s crypto lending program.
Fiscal 2026 was SEC Chair Paul Atkins’ first full fiscal year in office. The 348 enforcement actions were the agency’s fewest since 1991, according to a Reuters review of SEC records. Standalone actions fell to 235 from 303 a year earlier.
The decline in crypto enforcement was already visible in 2025, when the SEC filed 13 crypto-related actions, down from 33 in 2024, according to Cornerstone Research. Five of the 13 were filed before former Chair Gary Gensler left office in January 2025.
The SEC said its new enforcement analytics office was using “blockchain and financial-flow analysis” to detect potential misconduct earlier.