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45% of Americans Call Crypto Risky, Half Prefer Traditional Banks
Crypto enforcement shifted from SEC securities cases to AML violations, with DOJ and FinCEN imposing $1 billion in fines in H1 2025 while SEC penalties dropped 97% to $142 million.
What: CertiK reports AML enforcement is now crypto's top regulatory risk. DOJ and FinCEN imposed over $1 billion in fines in H1 2025, with OKX paying $504 million and KuCoin paying $297 million for unlicensed money transmission, while SEC penalties collapsed from $4.9 billion in 2024 to $142 million in 2025. Separately, Aptos launched Confidential APT, a privacy coin using zero-knowledge proofs to hide balances while enabling verification, and Paystand released USDb, a Bitcoin-backed stablecoin on Rootstock for enterprise payments.
Why it matters: The collapse in SEC enforcement reflects both the new administration and crypto's institutional maturity. The existential fight over whether crypto is a security is over, replaced by mundane but expensive AML compliance like traditional finance.
Takeaway: If building a crypto product handling user funds, prioritize AML compliance infrastructure and money transmitter licensing over securities law concerns.
Decoder
- Zero-knowledge proof: Cryptographic method that proves knowledge of a value without revealing the value itself, used in privacy coins to verify transactions without exposing amounts or balances.
- Rootstock: Bitcoin sidechain that enables smart contracts while using Bitcoin's blockchain as the underlying security layer.
Original article
A Politico poll of 2,035 US adults finds 45% view crypto investment as risky and nearly half favor traditional banks over crypto platforms, with two-thirds supporting strict Congressional AI regulations.
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