This library records 120 enforcement actions involving the crypto asset class, spanning 20 of its 59 manipulation techniques and 4 regulators (SEC, CFTC, OSC, FCA), filed between 2014-06-03 and 2026-08-11. These are enforcement records, not a random sample of conduct: they reflect what regulators chose to investigate, charge and publish, not the full population of crypto manipulation that actually occurred.
Crypto is one of this site's six technique families in name, but in the case data it is
broader than that: a record is tagged with the crypto asset class whenever the conduct
touches a digital asset, whether the technique itself is crypto-native — a rug pull, a wash
trade on a decentralised exchange — or an older technique such as insider trading or a Ponzi
scheme applied to a token instead of a security. The breakdown below is of that wider set.
Records by technique
Every technique on this site with at least one crypto-tagged record, most-recorded
first.
Within this library, crypto-tagged records cut across a wider range of techniques than any
other asset class — 20 of 59 — because token markets
give regulators occasion to charge both the crypto-native schemes native to that family
(rug pulls, oracle manipulation, wash trading on thin venues) and conventional fraud
(insider trading, Ponzi structures, unregistered offerings) applied to a new instrument.
SEC brings the largest share of the crypto-tagged records this library
holds (69 of 120).
None of this demonstrates that crypto markets are manipulated more or less often than other
markets — only that this is what the matters regulators have chosen to bring and publish
look like. The record is also incomplete by construction:
more than half of this library's total case count is conduct this site classifies as
related but distinct from manipulation itself
, and crypto is no exception to that caveat.
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