The year brought significant legal resolutions for some of crypto's most prominent figures. In October 2025, a pardon was issued, though it does not erase the guilty plea on the record. Separately, Do Kwon pleaded guilty to fraud in 2025 over the collapse of the UST stablecoin; an SEC judgment in 2024 put Terraform’s civil liability at about $4.47 billion.
Regulatory clarity emerged in other corners of the market. The SEC ended its case against Ripple in August 2025; the penalty was cut from $125 million to $50 million and XRP was confirmed not a security in secondary markets. The GENIUS Act, signed into law in July 2025, created the first US framework for payment stablecoins: reserves held one-to-one in US Treasuries and short-dollar assets, and a ban on paying holders any yield.
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