SEC Closes Investigation Against Robinhood: What Does This Mean for the Market?
Date: 2025-02-25 Author: Oliver Abernathy Categories: BUSINESS
In a letter dated February 21, the SEC notified the company that it had closed the case and had no intention of taking enforcement action.
According to Robinhood's General Counsel Dan Gallagher, the investigation was initially unfounded because the company had always complied with US securities laws and did not provide access to securities transactions.
The history of this case began back in May 2024, when Robinhood received a so-called Wells notice, signaling potential claims from the regulator. The SEC was considering recognizing some crypto assets on the platform as securities, which could entail serious restrictions.
Robinhood has repeatedly challenged the SEC's position, arguing that not all digital assets should be regulated by the same principles as traditional financial instruments. In an attempt to avoid pressure from the commission, the company has made significant concessions, abandoning a number of products. In particular, in June 2023, the platform stopped supporting Solana, Cardano, and Polygon after the SEC filed lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase, claiming that these tokens are securities. However, in November 2024, after Donald Trump won the presidential election, Robinhood again added these cryptocurrencies to the list of available assets. In recent years, the SEC has been actively pursuing large cryptocurrency companies. Under the leadership of Gary Gensler, the regulator initiated proceedings against the Coinbase, Kraken, and CryptoCom exchanges, the OpenSea platform, the Immutable blockchain project, the Uniswap operator, and Consensys, the company developing the MetaMask wallet. However, after the change of administration, the SEC's course towards the crypto industry began to soften.
The commission's recent decisions confirm changes in the regulation of the sector. In mid-February, it became known that any new SEC investigations into crypto companies will now require approval from the Trump administration. At the same time, the regulator abandoned the lawsuit against Coinbase and stopped the investigation into OpenSea. Moreover, the SEC division specializing in law enforcement in the cryptocurrency sphere is expecting serious cuts - more than 50 lawyers and employees may lose their positions.
These events signal potential changes in the regulation of the crypto market in the United States. Many experts believe that the pressure from the SEC on the industry will weaken, which may contribute to its further development.
