Observers say enforcement is catching up with DeFi, though restitution remains difficult in decentralized markets.
A federal jury’s conviction of SafeMoon CEO Braden John Karony on fraud and money-laundering charges has heightened U.S. scrutiny of token promoters, as the FBI seeks investors defrauded in the collapsed DeFi project.
Last week, the FBI opened a victim questionnaire, asking SafeMoon investors who lost money to submit information that could support restitution and help identify the full scope of the fraud.
Karony, 29, was found guilty in May after a two-week trial in Brooklyn, where prosecutors showed he and his co-founders siphoned more than $200 million from SafeMoon’s liquidity pools despite public claims the funds were locked and untouchable.
The FBI said responses to the new questionnaire will help agents identify SafeMoon investors as victims of federal crimes, a legal designation that can qualify them for restitution and services. The bureau affirmed that all information will remain confidential.
Observers say the case implies enforcement is catching up with DeFi projects while also showing the difficulty of measuring investor harm across global token markets.
“This conviction sends a clear message that liquidity-pool promises and tokenomics claims are still subject to the same fraud standards as traditional securities,” Lionel Iruk, senior advisor to Nav Markets and managing partner at Empire Legal, told Decrypt.
The SafeMoon case also establishes “that DeFi projects are not immune from enforcement simply because they utilize smart contracts or decentralised technology,” Iruk said.
Regulators will act when there is “clear control over investor funds,” a precedent Iruk notes should make founders more cautious about relying on “opacity or marketing hype” around liquidity pools in the pursuit of attracting investors.
Still, restitution is complicated by shifting token prices, limited records, and the difficulty of tracing diverted funds, Iruk said.
“Restitution in cases like this is complex. Valuation is the first challenge, where victims bought tokens at different prices and times, and in markets that are highly volatile. This situation makes it hard to establish what “fair value” restitution means,” he explained.
Another challenge is tracing misappropriated funds.
“Even if authorities seize funds, redistributing them fairly among thousands of retail holders is a logistical and legal hurdle,” Iruk said, adding that many investors “lack detailed records,” complicating eligibility and compensation.
The conviction sets a “critical precedent,” pushing token creators to use DeFi responsibly and design systems that safeguard investors by default, with “enhanced transparency and clarity” around tokenomics and smart contracts, Wesley Crook, CEO of blockchain engineering firm FP Block, told Decrypt.
Echoing Iruk’s concerns, Crook said achieving full resitution can be “formidable” owing to the “volatile, dispersed, and pseudonymous nature,” of decentralized finance which makes “retrospective solutions largely ineffective.”
Instead, Crook suggests the focus should be on designing systems “inherently resistant to manipulation,” such that these could “trustlessly safeguard investors through their structure, rather than depending on subjective action to uphold integrity.”
