The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed 348 enforcement actions in fiscal year 2026, down 23.7% from the 456 actions it brought a year earlier, according to its annual enforcement results, which included cases involving alleged crypto fraud and failures in FTX's audits.

In its Tuesday release, the SEC said it had charged three purported crypto trading platforms and four investment clubs in an alleged scheme that defrauded investors of at least $14 million. In a separate case, the agency accused the founder of a Bitcoin mining business of misappropriating $48.5 million after raising more than $95.6 million from about 6,400 investors.

The year's results also reflected earlier crypto-linked matters. In April, the SEC settled charges against Francis Decker, the Prager Metis partner who led FTX's audits, over failures to meet professional auditing standards. In February, a jury found Ismael Zarco Sanchez liable for securities fraud and registration violations over his role in the $300 million CryptoFX Ponzi scheme. In July, a court ordered Michael Noble to pay $1.07 million in a case over his role promoting BitConnect's crypto lending program.

Fiscal 2026 was the first full fiscal year in office for SEC Chair Paul Atkins. The 348 enforcement actions were the agency's fewest since 1991, according to a Reuters review of SEC records. Standalone actions fell to 235 from 303 a year earlier. Annual enforcement totals are also compiled and tracked outside the agency — from Reuters's review of SEC records to Cornerstone Research's yearly crypto enforcement updates — because they record how actively the commission applies federal securities laws.

The decline in crypto enforcement was already visible in 2025, when the SEC filed 13 crypto-related actions, down from 33 in 2024, according to Cornerstone Research. Five of the 13 were filed before former Chair Gary Gensler left office in January 2025, with the remaining eight filed after his departure, ahead of Atkins's first full fiscal year.

The SEC said its new enforcement analytics office was using “blockchain and financial-flow analysis” to detect potential misconduct earlier. The office's blockchain focus signals where the agency is directing its detection resources even as filings fall; how fiscal 2027 results compare against the new baselines of 348 total and 235 standalone actions will show whether the multi-year decline continues.