CFTC Awards $16M to U.S. Whistleblowers; Most Tips Were Crypto-Related

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which regulates derivatives markets in the U.S., has paid out $16 million to whistleblowers this year, and most of the 1,530 tips involved crypto, Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero said on Tuesday.

"The majority of the tips received this year involved crypto – an area that continues to have pervasive fraud and other illegality," Romero said in a statement published on the CFTC website. "With the rise of crypto, more retail customers have come under the CFTC’s jurisdiction, making even more critical the efforts of the CFTC’s Whistleblower Program and the Office of Customer Education and Outreach."

Whistleblowers help identify fraud and other illegality as well as interpret evidence, Romero said. "The faster we can stop fraud, the more we can protect customers from harm."

This year's payouts included "more than $15 million to two whistleblowers who provided significant information and assistance that led the CFTC to bring separate successful enforcement cases," Goldsmith Romero said.

Cumulatively the CFTC has handed out $350 million to whistleblowers, leading to more than $3 billion ordered in enforcement sanctions, she said.