Donald Trump’s administration has completely changed the tenor of cryptocurrency regulation and enforcement, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) specifically pausing, dismissing, and amending various actions that had been brought.
These changes have come as the SEC has designated Commissioner Hester Peirce to lead a Crypto Task Force with the goal “to provide clarity on the application of the federal securities laws to the crypto asset market.”
Protos has identified the crypto-related lawsuits and investigations that the SEC has modified since Trump’s inauguration. You can see them here.
Justin Sun
Justin Sun, an advisor to Trump-affiliated World Liberty Financial and major investor in the $TRUMP memecoin, was being sued alongside the TRON Foundation.
Read more: Justin Sun directed wash-trading scheme from his US apartment, SEC claim
The allegations in this lawsuit included that TRX and BTT were offered as securities without registration and that Sun directed market manipulation, including wash trading.
This lawsuit was paused in a joint motion on February 26, 2025.
Binance
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, was being sued by the SEC for allegations that it failed to register as a securities exchange, wash-traded tokens, and mishandled customer funds.
Read more: CFTC lawsuit against Binance claims CZ traded against users
On February 10, there was a joint motion to stay the proceedings, and the case was dismissed on May 29.
Ripple
Ripple Labs was the target of an SEC lawsuit started in the first Trump administration that alleged that it sold unregistered securities.
Read more: Ripple to stop XRP reports after SEC ‘used transparency against it’
On March 19, Ripple announced that the SEC was going to dismiss its appeal against it.
On April 16, this was echoed in a joint motion to hold the appeal in abeyance.
Immutable
Immutable, which describes itself as “your hub for Web3 Gaming,” announced on March 25 that the SEC had dropped its inquiry into Immutable.
Immutable had previously published a notice on November 1, 2024, that publicly disclosed that it had received a Wells Notice from the SEC related to its listing and sale of the IMX token.
Yuga Labs
Yuga Labs, the firm behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club and other NFT projects, announced on March 3, 2025, that the “SEC has officially closed its investigation into Yuga Labs.”
Kraken
Kraken, a US-based crypto exchange, had been the target of an SEC lawsuit that alleged that it had offered unregistered securities.
On March 3, 2025, Kraken announced that the “SEC staff had agreed in principle to dismiss its lawsuit against Kraken.”
On March 27, 2025, the parties involved filed a joint stipulation to dismiss the case.
Read more: Kraken exec says it aims to ‘build trust’ one hour before SEC probe leak
This suit was separate from the previous case that Kraken agreed to settle, which related to its staking-as-a-service offering.
Consensys
Consensys was the target of an SEC lawsuit related to its MetaMask wallet and the swaps feature built into the software.
Read more: ConsenSys says the SEC designated ETH a security but won’t say where
On February 27, 2025, Consensys announced that it and the SEC had “agreed in principle that the securities enforcement case concerning MetaMask should be dismissed.”
On March 27, the joint stipulation for dismissal was filed.
Gemini
The SEC targeted Gemini for investigation.
On February 27, 2025, Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of Gemini, announced that the SEC had closed its investigation and “will not be pursuing an enforcement action against us.”
In his long X post, he also claimed that the agency should now reimburse Gemini for its costs and that “everyone involved in these actions should be fired immediately and in a public way. Their names, roles, and the actions they participated in should be posted on the SEC website.“
He went on to say that “there should be a process that bars those like Gary Gensler…from ever being appointed to or hired by an agency again.”
It’s not clear how Winklevoss’ suggestion would square with the existing congressional approval process for agency heads.
OpenSea
OpenSea announced on February 21, 2025, that the SEC is closing its investigation into the NFT marketplace.
Read more: OpenSea hit with Wells notice, says SEC lawsuit will ‘misinterpret law’
This was separate from the criminal case that targeted former Head of Product Nathanial Chastain for insider trading.
Coinbase
Coinbase had been targeted by the SEC in a lawsuit that alleged that it operated as an unregistered broker, exchange, and clearing agency.
Read more: Why did the SEC let Coinbase go public?
On February 27, Coinbase announced that the case was to be dismissed and a joint stipulation was filed. A corrected version was filed on the following day.
Crypto.com
Crypto.com published a press release on March 27, 2025, that claims that the SEC “has informed Crypto.com that it has officially closed its investigation into Crypto.com and will file no enforcement action against the Company.”
Crypto.com received a Wells Notice from the SEC in late 2024, which resulted in the company choosing to sue the regulator.
Robinhood
Robinhood announced on February 24 that it had received guidance three days previously that the SEC “had concluded its investigation and did not intend to move forward with an enforcement action.”
This was following a Wells Notice that Robinhood had received in May of 2024.
Uniswap
Uniswap Labs, the firm responsible for much of the development of the Uniswap protocol, announced on February 25 that “the SEC has officially closed — with no action — its multi-year investigation into Uniswap Labs.”
Uniswap had announced in April of 2024 that it had received a Wells Notice from the SEC.
Staking Guidance
On May 29, the SEC announced that, in its view, the staking activities associated with proof-of-stake “do not involve the offer and sale of securities.”
Taken as a whole, these various cases and changes suggest that the SEC intends to bring far fewer cases against crypto firms during this term.
