On January 18th, two cases were brought to court by The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over alleged false cryptocurrency investment schemes. It comes as American regulators are attempting to crack down on cryptocurrency activity.

In one case, Dillon Michael Dean from Colorado and his business Entrepreneurs Headquarters Limited, are alleged by the CFTC, to have accumulated over $1.1 million in bitcoin in a pooled investment vehicle. According to the complaint, the pool reportedly invested in binary options contracts, but the CFTC argues that the suspects misused the money.

In the other case, the company CabbageTech and Patrick Kerry McDonnell from New York are being indicted for suspected fleeing while in possession of customers' digital assets. The agency has argued that McDonnell portrayed himself as a digital currency investment expert. He is said to have disappeared with the money and cryptocurrencies once a customer had invested. According to the complaints, in both cases, the CFTC stated that neither of the suspects had joined the agency.

However, this isn't the first time that the agency has been forced to act on alleged misuse of digital currency. In 2017, a suit was brought against a man for a reported bitcoin Ponzi scheme.