SafeMoon boss cites DOJ’s nixed crypto unit in latest bid to toss suit  

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has released its annual report detailing complaints and losses due to scams and fraud involving cryptocurrency in 2024.According to the report released on April 23, the IC3 received more than 140,000 complaints referencing cryptocurrency in 2024, resulting in roughly $9.3 billion in losses. The bureau reported that individuals over the age of 60 had been the most affected by crypto-related fraud, with roughly 33,000 complaints and $2.8 billion in losses.Source: FBI“Last year saw a new record for losses reported to IC3, totaling a staggering $16.6 billion,” said the report. “Fraud represented the bulk of reported losses in 2024, and ransomware was again the most pervasive threat to critical infrastructure, with complaints rising 9% from 2023,” notes the report, adding that, as a group, those over the age of 60 suffered the most losses and submitted the most complaints.The report added that the resultant losses had increased roughly 66% since 2023, from roughly $5.6 billion to $9.3 billion. The most significant percentage of losses occurred due to crypto investment schemes, while the largest number of complaints related to “sextortion” schemes, in which fraudsters manipulated photos and videos to create explicit content. Other scams included schemes involving the use of crypto ATMs or kiosks.Related: Crypto scam uses trade war fears to lure victims, Canadian watchdogs warnIn February, the FBI reported its “Operation Level Up” had saved potential victims of crypto fraud roughly $285 million between January 2024 and January 2025. However, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis speculated that 2025 could see the largest number of scams to date, given that generative AI is making the practice “more scalable and affordable for bad actors to conduct.”Globally, Chainalysis estimated that there had been roughly $41 billion in illicit crypto volume in 2024, with roughly 25% of the funds involved with “hacking, extortion, trafficking, or scams.” Some of the most high-profile crimes included the $1.4 billion in crypto stolen from the Bybit exchange in March and North Korean hackers taking more than $1.3 billion.Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

The Alabama Securities Commission, a financial regulator for the US state, dropped its lawsuit against crypto exchange Coinbase, which accused the company of violating securities laws by offering staking services to clients.The regulator cited the ongoing work between the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the crypto industry to develop clear crypto regulations as the primary reason for dropping the litigation, according to the April 23 legal filing shared by Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal.The filing read:”The SEC has announced the formation of a new task force to, among other things, provide guidance for the promulgation of rules regarding the regulation of cryptocurrency products and services.””Due to the foregoing, the Commission believes it would be apt to allow policymakers time to consider regulatory constructs,” the filing continued.The Alabama Securities Commission filed its lawsuit against Coinbase in June 2023, alongside state regulators from California, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.The Alabama Securities Commission dismisses its 2023 lawsuit against Coinbase. Source: Paul GrewalThe Commission’s dropped lawsuit reflects the positive regulatory shift toward cryptocurrencies in the United States as reform at the federal level matriculates into state-level regulatory policy.Related: Oregon targets Coinbase after SEC drops its federal lawsuitUS states drop Coinbase lawsuit but half still holding outFive of the 10 states that filed the litigation against Coinbase for its staking services have dropped their lawsuits.On March 13, Vermont’s Department of Financial Regulation became the first of the 10 state regulators to drop the staking lawsuit against Coinbase.South Carolina’s securities watchdog was the next to drop the 2023 litigation against Coinbase, dismissing the lawsuit on March 28.Grewal announced that Kentucky’s Department of Financial Institutions followed Vermont and South Carolina’s lead on April 1 by also dismissing its Coinbase lawsuit.Despite the domino effect of states rescinding litigation against the crypto exchange, the Coinbase chief legal officer said that more work needs to be done.”Five holdouts are still electing to waste taxpayer resources on lawsuits, and four of those have banned staking with Coinbase, depriving consumers of the right to earn on their platform of choice,” Grewal wrote in an April 23 X post.Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered

Officials with the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) crypto task force met with the El Salvador National Commission on Digital Assets (CNAD) to discuss regulation and a proposed cross-border sandbox.In an April 22 memo, the SEC’s crypto task force reported meeting with officials from El Salvador, Perkin Law Firm, and former Goldman Sachs partner Heather Shemilt as part of the commission’s outreach to the industry. The representatives discussed US-El Salvador cross-border collaboration on crypto regulation at a time when the relationship between the two countries was in the national spotlight over immigration and US deportations to an El Salvador prison.According to the meeting notes, El Salvador’s national commission agreed to collaborate with the SEC to establish a sandbox pilot program, capped at $10,000 for each scenario. The program proposed allowing brokers licensed in the US to obtain a digital asset license in El Salvador and issue “non-securities” tokens in collaboration with a local company.Many in the crypto industry see Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele as behind the country’s efforts to adopt cryptocurrency since he announced legislation to recognize Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender in 2021. Bukele met with US President Donald Trump on April 14, discussing details of a $6 million deal in which the Trump administration has been sending immigrants, whose legal status to be in the US is unclear, to prisons in El Salvador. Some of these deportations violated orders from federal judges.Related: Bitcoin takes back seat as Trump, Bukele focus on trade and immigrationNew SEC chair sworn inIt’s unclear if the Trump administration may intend to deepen ties to El Salvador through additional regulatory partnerships or stepping up deportations in its existing deal. Cointelegraph reached out to SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, who heads the crypto task force, for comment, but did not receive a response at the time of publication.The meeting report came roughly a day after the SEC announced that Paul Atkins had been sworn in as the commission’s new chair, following Gary Gensler and acting chair Mark Uyeda. During his swearing-in ceremony, Atkins said his top priority would be to “provide a firm regulatory foundation for digital assets.” Magazine: Ethereum maxis should become ‘assholes’ to win TradFi tokenization race