SEC Eased 60% of Inherited Crypto Cases Under Trump, NYT Investigation Finds

Dec. 15 (Crypto-News.Net) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has eased or dropped more than 60% of the cryptocurrency enforcement cases it inherited when President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, a New York Times investigation published Dec. 14 found.

The SEC pulled back from 14 of 23 crypto cases carried over from prior administrations, compared to approximately 4% of non-crypto cases dismissed from a pool of 262 Biden-era federal court cases, according to the New York Times investigation. The agency filed zero new crypto enforcement actions from January through Sept. 30, 2025.

The SEC denied that political favoritism influenced its decisions. The agency said it was pivoting for “legal and policy reasons,” including concerns about its authority to regulate the industry, according to the investigation.

Trump Ties and Regulatory Debate

Of the 14 cases the SEC pulled back from, eight involved defendants who later formed political or financial ties to Trump or his family, the NYT found.

The ties included financial relationships with Trump family crypto businesses or contributions to his political causes, according to the SEC’s policy shift that began shortly after Trump’s inauguration.

The NYT stated it “did not find evidence that the firms had tried to influence the cases against them through donations or business ties to Mr. Trump, some of which were made after the S.E.C. pivoted in their cases.” The findings have prompted debate among regulators about the agency’s enforcement priorities.

Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw, a Democratic appointee, dissented from several dismissals. “Today’s action undermines the credibility of our Division of Enforcement. It creates the specter that the agency will deploy its enforcement resources in conjunction with election cycles or in favor of those with means,” Crenshaw said in a Feb. 27 statement on the Coinbase case dismissal.

Commissioner Hester Peirce, who leads the SEC’s crypto task force established Jan. 21, 2025, supported the policy change. “The Commission took a sweeping and difficult-to-decipher approach in its application of Howey to the crypto industry. The industry suffered because effort that would have gone into building interesting and innovative products and services instead went into strategizing with costly lawyers,” Peirce said.

Industry Response and Case Outcomes

The SEC dismissed cases against Coinbase and Kraken on Feb. 27 and March 27, 2025, respectively, and proposed reducing Ripple Labs’ penalty from $125 million to $50 million in the ongoing SEC Ripple settlement talks. The agency also dropped its case against Binance entirely.

Industry figures disputed the NYT’s framing. Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer who has testified before Congress on crypto enforcement, noted on X that NYT reporters acknowledged they “did not find evidence that the firms had tried to influence the cases.” Grewal added this “shows the headline and the overall narrative to be even more twisted.”

Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, said on X that the NYT story “relies on the false premise that the prior admin’s attack on crypto is totally normal. It wasn’t.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration was “fulfilling the president’s promise to make the United States the crypto capital of the world by driving innovation and economic opportunity for all Americans,” the NYT reported. The SEC has not announced any timeline for new crypto enforcement guidelines.

Reporting and editing by Zoran Spirkovski

Sources

1. New York Times Investigation – Core statistics (14/23 cases, 60%+ rate, 4% non-crypto comparison, 8 Trump-linked defendants), “no evidence” caveat, SEC denial statement, White House response URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/us/politics/sec-crypto-firms-trump-investigation.html
2. SEC.gov Commissioner Crenshaw Statement – Dissent quote on enforcement credibility, “election cycles” concern URL: https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/crenshaw-remarks-crypto-2-0-regulatory-whiplash-022725
3. SEC.gov Commissioner Peirce Statement – Support for policy change, industry burden quote URL: https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/peirce-statement-coinbase-022725
4. Paul Grewal on X – Industry reaction to NYT framing, “no evidence” acknowledgment URL: https://x.com/iampaulgrewal/status/2000448092361932945
5. Alex Thorn on X – Criticism of NYT premise regarding prior administration’s crypto policy URL: https://x.com/intangiblecoins/status/2000334663479447557