With Democrats favored 75% to win a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026 on Kalshi’s prediction market, Rep. Maxine Waters’ new criticism of Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins’ crypto policies may gain more traction.
Although Congress remains on winter recess, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee on Monday called Atkins to testify before the committee, where she wants him to answer for the digital assets industry’s rejection of important enforcement measures.
“The SEC has terminated or suspended major enforcement actions against several crypto companies and individuals that had been credibly accused of major violations of our securities laws, including Coinbase, Binance, and Justin Sun,” Waters wrote in a letter sent to the panel’s Republican chairman, Rep. French Hill. “The committee did not examine why the SEC abandoned these issues, nor how the agency intends to deter fraud and manipulation in markets affecting millions of retail investors.”
Waters argued that some of the companies released from the SEC cases announced their layoffs before the commission actually voted on them, and she argued that Atkins’ office “took an exceptionally active role in negotiating the end of these cases.”Read more: Most influential: Paul Atkins
The SEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CoinDesk.
After the start of President Donald Trump’s administration, a change in leadership at the agency – and the eventual confirmation of Atkins as chairman – led the regulator to abandon a long list of legal battles it had waged with the crypto industry. Almost all of his current cases have been dropped, and he has withdrawn from several ongoing legal disputes.
Trump has made it his mission to boost the U.S. crypto industry, and Atkins said that same mission is the top priority of the SEC, which was created as an independent federal regulator not intended to operate under direct direction from the White House.
Waters, who has at times been an active negotiator on crypto legislation while also sharing industry criticism, said Atkins “frames the agency’s agenda as an instrument of administration.” She also noted that many policy changes were implemented through staff statements rather than formal rules. This is regularly the case for the crypto industry, which has enthusiastically embraced many of these statements as clarifying the agency’s position in the absence of clear digital asset laws. “This approach flouts the SEC’s legal obligations under the Administrative Procedure Act, excludes the vital role that public comment plays in identifying issues, and hides from Congress and the public what precise interests influence the SEC’s decision-making, so that we cannot weigh the motivations of the parties who shape SEC policy,” said Waters, who requested that Atkins come and testify before the House panel.
Read more: US SEC chief warns watchdogs must be limited in exploiting crypto’s spying power
