I just saw that Nishad Singh, the former chief engineer of FTX, received a $3.7 million fine from the CFTC this week. The interesting thing is that although he was heavily penalized, the cooperation he showed with authorities seems to have saved him from the worst.

This type faced a pretty complicated outlook: lawsuits from the CFTC, the SEC, and even the Department of Justice for what happened with FTX in 2022. But Nishad Singh managed to settle his case with the SEC last December with an agreement that includes an eight-year industry ban. Criminally, he testified against the platform's former CEO, which allowed him to avoid decades in prison.

Now, with the CFTC, he has a five-year ban from operating in markets and an eight-year ban from registering in the industry. Basically, he’s out of the game for a good while. The curious thing is how Nishad Singh cooperated from the beginning, and that changed everything in his case, compared to others who faced harsher penalties.