On Wednesday, US Senator Elizabeth Warren called for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) watchdog to investigate whether the Donald Trump administration profited from dropping crypto enforcement against the likes of Justin Sun, Binance, and Coinbase.
In a letter to the SEC’s Inspector General Deborah Jeffrey — who is responsible for investigating “allegations of wrongdoing or misconduct involving SEC programs, operations, or personnel” — Warren asked if she could probe the agency, members of the White House, or anyone with direct ties to Trump’s family and business partners to find out if they influenced SEC crypto policy.
If this turns out to be the case, Warren wants to uncover if they made a profit from any crypto policy meddling. She said, “President Trump, his closest advisors, and his family members all stand to benefit from boosts in the crypto industry.”
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Warren details the SEC’s streak of dropping, and pausing, legal action against 12 different crypto firms “founded by President Trump’s donors and business partners.”
These involve Justin Sun and Tron, Consenys, Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, Ripple, Robinhood, Gemini, Yuga Labs, Consensys, OpenSea, and Uniswap. Indeed, she highlights the pausing of Sun’s case after his $75 million investment in Trump’s World Liberty Financial.
She also claims the SEC has created a regulatory shield for memecoins that may benefit Trump and his First Lady Melania’s memecoins. In addition, Warren notes there may be a potential conflict of interest with Trump’s SEC chair nominee, Paul Atkins, who has millions in crypto-related investments and connections to crypto firms benefiting from the SEC’s lax approach.
As such, Warren has asked the Office of Inspector General to determine if the SEC’s crypto-related actions since January 20, 2025, “complied with all relevant federal ethics laws and SEC policies and procedures.”
On April 2, Warren also co-wrote a letter to the Acting SEC Chair Mark Uyeda, requesting that they preserve information related to World Liberty Financial to determine if Trump’s crypto company is influencing the SEC.
