Jump Crypto under CFTC investigation: report

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is reportedly investigating Jump Crypto, a crypto trading and Web3 infrastructure development firm from Jump Trading Group.

Fortune reported that the CFTC is also investigating the investment activities of the Chicago-based crypto firm.

CFTC and SEC sue multiple crypto companies

Over the past two years, the CFTC and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have initiated investigations and filed criminal charges against multiple cryptocurrency exchanges, platforms, and individuals.

Last year, the CFTC sued FTX, its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Binance, and its former CEO Changpeng Zhao and KuCoin. Meanwhile, top exchanges and individuals that will be subject to intense regulatory scrutiny from the SEC include Binance, Terraform Labs and former CEO Do Kwon, Coinbase, Kraken and Bittrex.

The SEC has also indicted Ripple and senior executives at the company and reportedly recently ended its investigation into Ethereum 2.0, details of which Consensys shared.

In its lawsuit against Terraform Labs, the SEC listed a “US trading firm” that helped illegally support the depegging of stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) in 2021. This firm turned out to be Jump Trading, and Terra collapsed in mid-2022. A major epidemic hit the crypto market.

Jump Crypto lost almost $300 million when FTX crashed later that year.

Jump Crypto’s $10 million political donation

News of the CFTC’s investigation into Jump Crypto’s trading activities emerged on Thursday, coming just a day after he made a $10 million donation to a US political action committee (PAC) seeking to bring crypto-friendly lawmakers to Congress.

Jump Crypto has contributed $15 million so far to the PAC, which has received millions of dollars in donations from companies like Coinbase, Ripple and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

Super PAC Fairshake brought in a staggering $169 million, and the latest regulatory filings show the organization still holds about $109 million.