The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has finalized its enforcement action against Nishad Singh, the former head of engineering at collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, marking the first individual case the agency has fully resolved in its multi-year FTX investigation. A supplemental consent order filed in the Southern District of New York requires Singh to pay $3.7 million in disgorgement. The amount corresponds to real estate Singh purchased in October 2022 using funds he knew were misappropriated from FTX customer accounts.
Beyond the disgorgement payment, the consent order imposes a five-year trading ban and an eight-year registration ban on Singh. The CFTC chose to waive both restitution and civil penalties, citing Singh’s cooperation with investigators and his joint and several liability under an $11.02 billion criminal forfeiture order. The agency’s enforcement director, David Miller, stated that the resolution reflects the Commission’s policy of rewarding and incentivizing material assistance in its investigations.
Miller acknowledged that Singh had engaged in and aided significant violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations during his tenure as FTX’s engineering chief. In a February 2023 guilty plea, Singh admitted to maintaining code that allowed sister trading firm Alameda Research to withdraw billions of dollars in customer funds from the exchange without disclosure. He later testified against FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried at trial in October 2024 and received no prison sentence in connection with that cooperation.
FTX collapsed in November 2022 after approximately $8 billion in customer deposits were funneled to Alameda Research to cover trading losses, fund luxury real estate purchases, and finance political contributions. The fallout resulted in criminal charges against five executives and a $12.7 billion CFTC judgment against the corporate entities. A bankruptcy process has since distributed roughly $10 billion to creditors from an estate estimated at $16 billion, with a fourth round of repayments totaling $2.2 billion beginning this week.
Christian Ruz, business strategy director at crypto agency Hype, described the difficulty of assessing Singh’s role, noting that it is nearly impossible to quantify the responsibility of someone who built systems that enabled the misappropriation of customer funds. Ruz explained that Singh constructed a centralized system to manage deposits, customer funds, and trading activities, characterizing such infrastructure as neutral in itself but dependent on how it is used. His comments highlight the broader questions of technical accountability that complex financial fraud cases often raise.
Several CFTC civil cases stemming from the FTX collapse remain unresolved. Monetary remedy proceedings against former executives Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, who was released from federal custody in early 2026, are still pending on the civil docket. Bankman-Fried’s case has been stayed while he represents himself in an effort to secure a new trial from federal prison. Ruz estimated that the remaining cases could take until mid-2027 to conclude, noting that parties involved are likely to seek delays in such a complex matter.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig has continued to invoke the FTX collapse as a cautionary example in broader regulatory discussions. In a recent interview, Selig warned that failing to regulate prediction markets could lead to FTX-style implosions, underscoring the agency’s ongoing efforts to draw lessons from the enforcement actions still working their way through its docket.
Originally reported by Decrypt.
