The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States undertakes a large-scale retirement of a large part of the main cryptographic disputes launched under former President Gary Gensler, but not everyone won.
At least four prosecution against cryptographic companies – Ripple, Kraken, Cumberland DRW and Pulsechain – remain in progress, and probe in three other companies – Unicoin, Crypto.com and Immutable – have not yet been closed.
The SEC Commissioner, Hester Peirce, the head of the working group in newly created cryptography of the agency, has already made his promise earlier this month to “unravel” the dry of various disputes linked to the crypto. The agency agreed to remove its affairs against Coinbase and Consensys, pending the approval of the commissioner, and put his business against Binance and a break while the parties are considering a “potential resolution”.
The unprecedented level of activity at the dry, because it decreases illustrious cryptographic actions “how the last four years have been beyond the last four years”, the legal director of Coinbase Paul has grown in an interview with Coindesk. “This is certainly something that we have never seen before, but I think it’s justified.”
In the past two weeks, a certain number of companies that have previously received Wells opinions – essentially a point of view of the regulator that he intended to file a complaint – learned from the dry that the investigations which were closed there had been closed and that accusations of application would not be filed against them. This list includes Robinhood Crypto, a UNISWAP decentralized protocol, the non -bubilist tokens (NFT) Opensea and crypto exchange Gemini.
Open combinations
Although the SEC has withdrawn its accusations according to which Coinbase worked as a broker and exchange of non -registered securities, similar accusations against Kraken have not yet been abandoned. The SEC continued Kraken in November 2023, accusing the company of communicating customer and business funds while operating as a broker in unregistered securities, compensation agency and reseller. A Kraken representative did not respond to the request for comments from Coindesk.
Likewise, the SEC continued Cumberland DRW – The Crypto Trading Branch of the Commercial Company based in Chicago DRW – last year for allegedly operated as non -recorded securities merchant. Don Wilson, the founder of DRW, is committed to fighting the costume at the time. A DRW representative refused to comment, telling Coindesk that the company currently has no update to share.
Read more: Who is afraid of Gary Gensler? Not Don Wilson, the merchant who beat the regulator once before
The SEC continued Ripple in 2020 and lost largely in 2023, when a New York judge ruled that XRP, when he was sold to retail investors, was not security. The SEC subsequently appealed this decision. Although the leaders of Ripple and external experts have hypothesized that the agency will abandon the appeal, the agency has not yet made a public declaration on the case. A Ripple representative told Coindesk that the company currently had no update to share.
Rebecca Fike, a partner based in Dallas at the Vinson & Elkins law firm and former lawyer for the Application of the SEC, told Coindesk that she expects the dry to abandon one of her current cases which are based on the use of the Howey test to charge a company to offer unregistered titles, in particular when there are no conclusions of fraud or other problems related to the investor.
“As for the reasons why some have been abandoned before others, it could be internal delays based on the courts that set priorities,” said Fike. “There is also a chance that certain cases related to the crypto which seem to adapt to the framework of Howey and that the dry determines is based squarely in fraud – that is to say a promoter or a CEO saying one thing but to do another with investors – could continue in a framework of traditional fraud.”
The SEC brought allegations of fraud and recording against Richard Schueler, better known as Richard Heart, Pulsechain, Pulsex and Hex in July 2023. There was an hearing on the defendant’s request to reject last October, and the judge supervising the case rejected him last Friday, although she gave the dry 20 days to modify it.
Open probes
Several of the SEC probes – surveys that have not yet led to deposited accusations – in cryptographic societies are also open.
Crypto.com continued the dry last October after receiving a Wells opinion. The company voluntarily lowered its costume two months later, shortly after the CEO Kris Marzalek met the president of the time, Donald Trump. Crypto.com did not respond to the request for comments from Coindesk.
Last year, the Australian company Blockchain Gaming and NFT also received a well opinion linked to the sale of its IMX token in 2021 and undertook to fight all the accusations of application of the law that followed. Neither the company nor the SEC made public declarations on the status of the survey.
Unicoin also received an opinion from Wells last year informing the company that the SEC was planning to pay charges allegedly related to fraud, misleading practices and the offer and sale of unregistered titles. Unicoin did not respond to the request for comments from Coindesk.
Look forward to
The retirement of the SEC, as well as the reduction of its team of application of cryptography, according to Fike, indicates that the agency is moving away from the so -called “application by application” approach of the cryptographic industry undertaken by the former president Gensler.
“I think that the SEC indicates by staff that it means what it says now: this cryptographic regulation will come from the statements and potential future regulations, not the implementing measures of the case,” said Fike. “Their hope and mine is that a support for the shelter of all the titles of cryptography and the evaluation of the cryptographic industry as a whole within the framework of the new working group of Commissioner Peirce, will create a certain clarity concerning the regulation of cryptography.”
While the dry changes quickly, not everyone is happy. The president and co-founder of Gemini, Cameron Winkelvoss, went to X earlier this week to demand reprisals for the time and money that the Crypto Exchange spent defending itself against the SEC investigation. He suggested that the DSA reimburse the triple gemini its legal costs and publicly dismiss all the staff involved in the survey.
According to Fike, it is probably a non-starter.
“I can’t imagine that the dry would never do it. It seems that it would be a difficult precedent to fix it and other agencies trying to regulate on the new and emerging markets, “said Fike. “It is important to note that new financial products can often be a source of fraud, and people / investors can be injured by them. I think that the SEC was trying to be present and active in a billion dollars full of investors who may be afraid of “missing” but who do not necessarily have the financial or technological know-how to analyze the real crypto opportunities from potential fraud. »»
Fike continued, adding: “Many can disagree with the path they have taken, and the commissioners Peirce and Uyeda do it clearly, but they also benefit from a certain maturation in the cryptographic universe. I think it is good that the dry takes a step back and seeks to create a better regulatory structure for cryptographic and digital assets, but I do not think that means that their previous efforts have been ill -intentioned or deserving punishment. »»
