Journalists Remind About Ongoing SEC Investigations of Crypto Firms
Date: 2025-03-04 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: BUSINESS
Ripple, Kraken, Cumberland DRW, and Pulsechain are among the companies facing ongoing lawsuits. At the same time, investigations into Unicoin, Crypto.com, and Immutable have not been completed.
Hester Peirce, appointed in February to head the SEC's "crypto group," began reviewing cases initiated under former Chairman Gary Gensler. However, by March, this process had not resulted in the closure of all proceedings. So far, the SEC has dismissed cases against Coinbase and ConsenSys, and has suspended lawsuits against Binance and Tron as the parties consider possible settlement options.
“The SEC’s aggressive actions over the past four years represent an unprecedented level of pressure on the crypto industry. We’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Coinbase General Counsel Paul Grewal.
Recently, several crypto companies that had previously received Wells notices were informed that the SEC was withdrawing their claims. These include Robinhood Crypto, Uniswap, OpenSea, and Gemini.
The SEC is keeping its claims against Cumberland DRW, accusing the company of operating as an unregistered securities dealer.
The lawsuit against Ripple also remains pending. Previously, the company’s management and a number of experts expressed confidence that the Commission would not appeal. However, at this time, the SEC has made no official statements on this matter.
According to Vinson & Elkins partner Rebecca Fike, the Commission will likely gradually wind down cases based on the Howey test, which are used to accuse companies of offering unregistered securities.
“It is possible that some of these cases will focus on fraud detection rather than asset classification issues, in which case the SEC will continue to investigate them,” she said.
In the summer of 2023, the SEC filed charges against Richard Schuler, better known as Richard Hart, as well as Pulsechain, PulseX, and Hex. In October 2024, the court heard the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case, but it was denied on February 28, 2025. The judge gave the SEC 20 days to amend the charges.
Some of the cases are still under investigation and have not yet resulted in formal charges.
In October 2024, Crypto.com sued the SEC after receiving Wells’ notice, but withdrew the lawsuit two months later. This happened shortly after the company’s CEO Chris Marzalek met with US President Donald Trump.
In addition, Immutable and Unicoin received Wells notices last year, but no new charges have been filed against them at this time.
Vinson & Elkins' Fike believes the SEC is gradually moving away from Gensler's strategy of regulating through lawsuits.
"Going forward, oversight will be through interpretive statements and new legislative initiatives. This should increase legal certainty for crypto market participants," she said.
In March, the Senate will consider repealing a number of regulations introduced by the Joe Biden administration that relate to the regulation of DeFi and digital payments.
The first law requires decentralized financial platforms to disclose tax information, while the second strengthens oversight of large tech companies providing digital payment services.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump nominated Jonathan Gould to head the OCC at the Treasury Department. Ron Hammond, a representative of the Blockchain Association, noted that his appointment could contribute to the development of a clear regulatory framework for crypto assets.
Trump also formally nominated Paul Atkins to be the SEC chairman, highlighting his deep understanding of digital assets.
