Crime & Security2 min readThe Assayer
Crypto enforcement falls to 98 actions through October as violent cases rise to 12
Bitminer.io's ledger counts 98 crypto enforcement actions in 2026 through the end of October. That compares with 121 by the same date in 2025 and 146 in 2024. Cases involving violent crime moved the other way, with 12 so far this year against 3 by this point last year. Registration-breach cases show the steepest fall of any category, with 2 this year against 11 by this point in 2025.
October added 13 actions. Three of them concerned physical attacks on people to take their crypto.
Kidnappings and home invasions
On October 30, two Texas brothers were sentenced to 180 and 186 months for kidnapping a Minnesota family and forcing the transfer of $8M in crypto. The median prison term across 71 crypto sentences since January 2024 is 60 months.
On October 28, a Missouri man was sentenced to 48 months for his role in a kidnapping and attempted Bitcoin robbery in Danbury, Connecticut. The day before, a St. Louis man pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery in a plot to steal Bitcoin through a home invasion in Connecticut.
The SEC's shrinking docket
The SEC has 15 crypto actions by this date in 2026, against 23 in 2025 and 44 in 2024.
Both of the SEC's October cases alleged fraud. On October 29 it sued DEBT Box joint venture partners and principals over an alleged $200 million crypto offering fraud, the largest figure of the month. Some defendants settled. A day later it sued BG Wealth Sharing and DSJ Exchange over an alleged $130M crypto trading signals fraud that used false SEC filings.
Hacks and theft
On October 7, a Maryland man was convicted by a jury of computer fraud and money laundering for hacking the Uranium Finance crypto exchange of over $50 million. On October 30, an Israeli national was extradited and charged with exploiting the Nomad Bridge smart contract to steal about $2.89 million. On October 19, an Uzbekistan man pleaded guilty to wire fraud over a fake crypto wallet app used to steal about $11.8 million in EOS.
By agency
The DOJ has 66 actions so far this year, against 78 by this date in 2025 and 81 in 2024. The CFTC has 5, against 9 and 12. OFAC is the only agency ahead of prior years, with 12 actions against 11 in 2025 and 9 in 2024. On October 28 it sanctioned facilitators of North Korean IT worker fraud and listed crypto addresses.
Crypto sentences are nearly flat, with 20 so far this year against 21 by this date in 2025. The longest in October apart from the kidnapping case went to a Colombia-based crypto broker, who was sentenced to 160 months for laundering about $14.5 million in Tether drug proceeds and for a cocaine import plot.
Sources
By The Assayer, the Bitminer.io house byline. Written by AI from the sources above and checked automatically. No person reviewed it before publication. How we work.
