The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is said to be conducting an investigation into Jump Crypto, a cryptocurrency trading and Web3 infrastructure development company owned by Jump Trading Group. According to Fortune, the CFTC is also examining the investment activities of the Chicago-based crypto firm.
Over the past two years, both the CFTC and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have launched investigations and brought charges against numerous cryptocurrency exchanges, platforms, and individuals. The CFTC has filed lawsuits against FTX and its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Binance and its former CEO Changpeng Zhao, and KuCoin. Similarly, the SEC has subjected top exchanges and individuals to extensive regulatory scrutiny, including Binance, Terraform Labs and former CEO Do Kwon, Coinbase, Kraken, and Bittrex.
The SEC also brought charges against Ripple and key executives at the company, and reportedly concluded its investigation into Ethereum 2.0, details of which were shared by Consensys. In its case against Terraform Labs, the SEC identified a “U.S. trading firm” that had allegedly assisted in supporting depegging stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) in 2021. This firm was revealed to be Jump Trading, and Terra ultimately collapsed in mid-2022, causing a significant ripple effect in the crypto market. Jump Crypto also suffered losses of nearly $300 million when FTX collapsed later that same year.
News of the CFTC’s investigation into Jump Crypto’s trading activities emerged on Thursday, just a day after the company made a $10 million donation to a U.S. political action committee (PAC) aimed at electing crypto-friendly legislators to Congress. Jump Crypto has contributed a total of $15 million to the PAC, which has received multi-million dollar donations from industry players such as Coinbase, Ripple, and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The super PAC, Fairshake, has raised an impressive $169 million, and the latest regulatory filings indicate that the entity still holds approximately $109 million.