Crypto

Jump Crypto Faces CFTC Investigation Amid Cryptocurrency Trading Scrutiny

Published

2 years ago

June 21, 2024

Jump Crypto Faces CFTC Investigation Amid Cryptocurrency Trading Scrutiny

The CFTC has launched a probe into Jump Crypto, including its investment and trading activities, but has not charged the company with any wrongdoing.
Jump Crypto is one of the industry’s largest market makers and is behind critical market infrastructure, like the Wormhole bridge, but has been caught up in controversy over links to FTX and Terra.

The US commodities watchdog has opened a probe into Jump Crypto, one of the industry’s largest trading companies, according to multiple news reports.

The CFTC is investigating Jump Crypto’s trading and investment activity in the sector, but the agency has not disclosed the specifics of its investigation. However, both parties have clarified that the firm has not been charged with any crime, nor is the probe proof of any wrongdoing.

Scoop: The CFTC is probing Jump’s crypto business.
The Chicago-based trading firm was previously a giant in the crypto market-making and investing space before being implicated in a series of high-profile collapses and hacks, though it is still active:https://t.co/aOuBA7uf5o
— Leo Schwartz (@leomschwartz) June 20, 2024

Jump Crypto is a subsidiary of Jump Trading, a Chicago-based proprietary trading giant. The company established its crypto outfit in late 2021 to offer its world-leading trading services to the digital assets world. Jump Crypto quickly shot up the ranks to become one of crypto’s largest market makers, facilitating billions of dollars in trading volume daily.

Besides market making, Jump Crypto has also invested in some of the industry’s largest and most successful projects. This includes participating in the $300 million raise for SUI, the $150 million round for Aptos, the $70 million round for the 0x protocol and the $55 million round for Celestia.

Additionally, it has incubated some massive crypto projects. Its biggest success was Wormhole, a communication protocol between various blockchains that enables cross-chain exchange, governance and gaming.

Jump Crypto’s Woes

Jump Crypto’s problems started with the hack of the Wormhole protocol in which criminals exploited a security flaw and made off with $325 million in early 2022, as Crypto News Flash reported at the time. Jump Crypto relied on the financial might of its parent company to compensate the victims.

However, the blow was significant, and in November last year, it emerged that it was spinning off the Wormhole project.

Jump Crypto’s biggest problems were on its trading side. The company was caught up in the LUNA and UST debacle, in which close to $60 billion was lost after the two Terra ecosystem tokens collapsed.

It would later be revealed that Jump was one of the key allies of Do Kwon and his gang. The company was specifically accused of being used by Kwon to prop up the prices of his tokens, including ensuring that the UST algorithmic stablecoin remained pegged despite market turmoil.

US authorities pursued Kwon, who was later arrested and jailed in Montenegro. However, Jump wasn’t charged for its part in the collapse.

Disgruntled investors have also brought up charges against the company. Last year, they filed a class action lawsuit, accusing the company of aiding and abetting fraud.

No spam, no lies, only insights. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Crypto

Crypto Crime Wave Fueled by Chinese-Language Money Laundering | PYMNTS.com

Published

7 hours ago

January 27, 2026

Press Room

Crypto Crime Wave Fueled by Chinese-Language Money Laundering | PYMNTS.com

Cryptocurrency laundering was an $82 billion problem last year, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday (Jan. 27), citing data from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis.

Chinese-language money laundering networks made up $16.1 billion of that total as they play an increasing role in crypto crime, the report said.

“These are groups that are growing exponentially,” Andrew Fierman, head of national security intelligence at Chainalysis, told Bloomberg, per the report. “We’re talking about growth of over 7,300 times faster than other illicit flows.”

Although China has outlawed crypto transactions, illegal activity continues as the government chiefly focuses on behavior that threatens capital controls or financial stability, according to the report.

The networks “have really embraced cryptocurrencies,” said Kathryn Westmore, a senior associate fellow at the Centre for Finance and Security at RUSI, per the report, adding that crypto provides “a way to launder the proceeds of cash-generating criminal activities, like drugs or fraud.”

The news followed a warning from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in August, which said Chinese money laundering networks are now among the most significant threats to the American financial system, helping fuel the operations of Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels.

Advertisement: Scroll to Continue

“The networks have become effective partners because they can move cash quickly, absorb losses and leverage demand from Chinese nationals seeking to bypass Beijing’s strict currency controls,” PYMNTS reported Aug. 29. “By pairing cartel dollars with Chinese demand for U.S. currency, these networks have created what FinCEN called a ‘mutualistic relationship’ that strengthens both sides.”

Meanwhile, Eric Jardine, head of research at Chainalysis, discussed last year’s record-setting levels of crypto crime with PYMNTS in an interview published Monday (Jan. 26). Around $154 billion flowed to illicit addresses, the most ever recorded, and there was a 160% increase in illicit volumes.

“But treating that number as evidence of runaway criminal adoption may miss the more consequential story,” PYMNTS wrote. “What changed in 2025 was not merely volume, but the identity of the actors, the scale at which they operated, and the implications this has for banks, regulators, and the future architecture of financial blockchain compliance.”

The true inflection came from “a shift in who’s doing what,” Jardine said, adding that in 2025, nation states, most notably Russia, began taking part “in earnest in the crypto ecosystem,” chiefly through sanctions evasion.

Unlike earlier state-linked activity, like North Korea’s hacking campaigns, this was not marginal behavior at the edges of the system, but “industrial-scale financial activity conducted in plain sight,” PYMNTS wrote.

Crypto

Fixing BTC’s Quantum Issue Tops All Bitcoin Development Priorities, Says Willy Woo

Published

19 hours ago

January 27, 2026

Press Room

Fixing BTC’s Quantum Issue Tops All Bitcoin Development Priorities, Says Willy Woo

Quantum risk is emerging as a decisive hurdle for bitcoin’s institutional future as sovereign investors weigh long-term resilience, pushing gold and BTC into sharper focus amid debt cycles, macro uncertainty, and geopolitical realignment, according to on-chain analyst Willy Woo.

Crypto

Strategy buys even more Bitcoin—$264 million of it—even as Bitcoin slumps to $87,000. | Fortune

Published

1 day ago

January 26, 2026

Press Room

Strategy buys even more Bitcoin—4 million of it—even as Bitcoin slumps to ,000. | Fortune

Despite the current downturn for crypto, Strategy added even more Bitcoin to its collection. The company bought more than 2,900 Bitcoin last week, bringing its total to over 712,000, according to an X post by cofounder Michael Saylor. The move follows a more than $2 billion purchase earlier this month.

Strategy is the first and biggest digital asset treasury, or a type of company that acquires and holds on to large amounts of crypto. Saylor’s company began investing in Bitcoin in 2020 and now holds more than 3% of the total supply. This business model has confronted major challenges in the past few months, as the largest cryptocurrency has plummeted since its all-time high in October. Bitcoin is worth about $87,000, down about 31% since then, according to Binance.

One analyst views Saylor’s purchase as expected, considering the company’s business strategy, which is to continually amass Bitcoin on the theory it will appreciate in the long term, and to time purchases to coincide with market dips.

“It’s not surprising for me to see that they’re really aggressively continuing to purchase [Bitcoin]”, said Nathan Schmidt, an analyst at CFRA Research. “It is certainly the playbook for them these days.”

Bitcoin’s fall from its all-time high of about $126,000 in October was caused in part by a flash crash in the fall, where crypto traders lost more than $19 billion in their positions. Misfortunes for digital assets have only continued this calendar year. The sector dipped as tensions mounted between the U.S. and Europe over Greenland. In addition, major regulatory legislation, referred to as the Clarity Act, has stalled as major figures in the crypto industry spar over its details.

The major cryptocurrency isn’t the only one to suffer losses, as altcoins are down as well. Ethereum is down 30% in the last three months to its current price of $2,899, and Solana is down more than 38% to its price of about $124, according to Binance.

Crypto’s dip has led to disastrous returns for digital asset treasuries like Strategy. Saylor’s company stock is down about 64% since July to its current price of about $160.

Schmidt, the analyst from CFRA Research, argues that the biggest risk to Strategy is long-term declines in the value of Bitcoin. He says that the company could survive such a dip in the next few years because of its liquidity, but that over time the company would be in trouble.

Join us at the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit May 19–20, 2026, in Atlanta. The next era of workplace innovation is here—and the old playbook is being rewritten. At this exclusive, high-energy event, the world’s most innovative leaders will convene to explore how AI, humanity, and strategy converge to redefine, again, the future of work. Register now.