CFTC Orders Ex-FTX Engineer to Pay $3.7 Million

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has ordered Nishad Singh, former head of engineering at the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, to pay $3.7 million in disgorgement as part of a supplemental consent order finalized on April 1, 2026. The penalty resolves the agency's civil enforcement action against Singh for his role in the misappropriation of more than $8 billion in customer funds, which led to FTX's bankruptcy in November 2022.

Singh, who reported directly to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, supervised engineering teams for both FTX and its affiliated trading firm, Alameda Research. According to the CFTC's findings, Singh contributed to the fraud by implementing key software features starting in 2019. These included an "allow negative" flag that permitted Alameda to maintain negative balances on the FTX platform, effectively providing the firm with undisclosed credit backed by customer deposits. In 2020, he further adjusted the system's liquidation engine to exempt Alameda from automatic liquidations applied to other users and increased its borrowing limit to $6.5 billion. None of these modifications were disclosed to FTX customers or trading partners, enabling the...