The National Futures Association (NFA) recently decided that the cryptocurrency fund Ikigai Strategic Partners agreed to pay a fine of $150,000 to settle allegations of conducting illegal bitcoin lending activities. This penalty event is part of the ongoing impact of the industry-wide liquidity crisis from last year. As the body responsible for overseeing the U.S. derivatives market, NFA's actions reflect its supervisory activities in the spot cryptocurrency market. In its statement on August 20, NFA pointed out that Ikigai Strategic allowed a fund pool it operated to make a prohibited prepayment of fund pool assets to a company associated with it. The associated company was jointly owned by Anthony Robert Emtman, the head of the fund, and another executive of Ikigai Strategic.