Spring of Crypto Regulation: A View of Recent SEC Bulk Settlement and Revocation of Litigation

Author:Golem , Odaily Planet Daily

Although the crypto market has shown a downward trend in recent times, Bitcoin has fallen by more than 10% in the past 7 days, and its market value has fallen out of the top ten global assets at one point, but there is a trend of improvement in crypto supervision.

Long before Trump officially took office, crypto advocacy groups such as the Digital Chamber of Commerce listed the important events of the new SEC "day one" to initiate reviews of all existing crypto-related investigations, Wells notices and ongoing litigation cases, and seeking to suspend cases that do not involve actual fraud or investor harm.

On January 20, 2025, Gary Gensler, who had been in charge of the US SEC for four years, officially stepped down. Mark Uyeda has served as the acting chairman of the US SEC. In just one month, the new US SEC fulfilled its promise and changed Gary Gensler's tough attitude towards crypto companies during his tenure, and first resolved and revoked a number of crypto litigation cases. Odaily Planet Daily compiled it into the following picture:

Crypto Enterprises: Years of Persistence Finally Come to the Dawn

Before being settled and withdrawn, many crypto companies fought a "war" with the U.S. SEC for many years.

Coinbase’s dispute with the U.S. SEC dates back to 2021. In September 2021, the US SEC issued a Wells notice against Coinbase’s loan business Coinbase Lend (the US SEC issued an informal reminder before civil litigation of listed companies in the US, and listed companies that receive the notice can communicate and negotiate with the SEC before receiving the formal litigation) . At that time, Coinbase did not choose to confront the US SEC, but announced that it had cancelled the upcoming crypto lending project plan.

But in March 2023, the US SEC issued a Wells notice to Coinbase again, warning that the company might have violated U.S. securities laws, focusing on pledge services and asset listing. Coinbase did not choose to back down in the face of the lawsuit, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said at the time, "Coinbase has to prepare for a years-long court battle with the U.S. SEC and even if the situation worsens, it will consider making more investment overseas, including moving from the U.S. to elsewhere."

Uniswap and OpenSea are also among those with the same tough attitude as Coinbase.

In April 2024, Uniswap received a Wells notice from the US SEC and made it clear that it would “fight back” to the end: “We must fight against U.S. government agencies in order to protect our companies and industries. This fight will last for years and may be on the way to the Supreme Court, with the future of fintech and our industry at stake.”

In August of the same year, OpenSea also received a notice from the US SEC to Wells, accusing it of operating as a trading platform for unregistered securities and intending to classify NFTs as securities. OpenSea also chose to stand up and fight for the industry, and to help ensure creators continue to create fearlessly, OpenSea offered $5 million at the time to pay legal fees for NFT artists and developers who also received Wells notifications.

In fact, it is not easy to fight a lawsuit against the U.S. SEC. As Uniswap Hayden Adams responded to the US SEC abandoning its investigation into Uniswap on February 26, “The previous investigation of the SEC took three years and wasted a lot of time and millions of dollars, which had a significant impact on the company.”

The human, material and financial pressures that need to be borne in litigation are not something that ordinary companies can bear. Some crypto companies have not yet reached the current good era of rehabilitation.

For example, Paxos, a stablecoin issuer, jointly issued stablecoin BUSD with Binance in February 2023, received a Wells notice from the US SEC, accusing BUSD of an unregistered securities. On the same day, Paxos was forced to stop issuing BUSD under pressure from the New York State Department of Financial Services. Although Paxos also fought that BUSD was not a "security" and would sue the SEC, it ultimately failed to withstand the pressure. Binance also announced in November 2023 that it would gradually remove BUSD. The dramatic thing is that in July 2024, the SEC gave up its investigation into Paxos and determined that BUSD does not belong to securities.

The spring of crypto-regulation has arrived

The two most important promises that Trump needs to fulfill in office are to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve and reverse the US SEC's regulatory attitude towards crypto. Although the approval progress of Bitcoin strategic reserves in various states is not optimistic, the US SEC's attitude towards crypto has improved to the naked eye.

The US SEC's abandonment of litigation has formed a demonstration effect. After the revocation of the Coinbase and Robinhood lawsuits, exchanges such as Binance and Kraken may usher in a turning point, because the lawsuits against these platforms are based on the same regulatory logic as those of Coinbase cases. At the same time, according to Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett, given the recent attention of the US SEC on pledge business, the agency may re-examine the lawsuit filed last year against ConsenSys for its MetaMask pledge service.

The mass withdrawal of litigation by the US SEC will also benefit tokens that were once regarded as securities, including BNB, SOL, ADA, etc., and are even expected to start a new round of "policy bull". The spring of crypto regulation has arrived, and the crypto industry has taken another step to gaining recognition from the traditional world.