The SEC is cutting staff in a special unit of more than 50 people responsible for enforcing cryptocurrency regulations. This move is one of the first concrete steps by President Trump and his administration to ease regulations on cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. One of President Trump’s first executive orders aimed to promote cryptocurrency growth and “eliminate excessive regulation” of digital assets.
Crypto Thaw
Donald Trump, who once criticized cryptocurrency, embraced digital assets during his 2024 presidential campaign and welcomed support from the crypto community, which had viewed former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler as its biggest adversary.
The current acting SEC Chairman, Mark T. Uyeda, is a Republican who supports the crypto industry. He has appointed numerous staff members and reshuffled key leadership positions within the SEC, which employs over 1,000 attorneys.
One of Uyeda’s first actions was to form a team to reassess the SEC’s approach to digital assets. The task force is led by Hester Peirce, a SEC commissioner and outspoken advocate for cryptocurrency. In an official document published Tuesday on the SEC’s website, Peirce criticized the commission’s previous approach to crypto regulation, comparing it to a speeding car.
“The SEC’s handling of cryptocurrencies has been legally imprecise and commercially impractical,” Peirce wrote. She stated that the task force’s goal is to establish a regulatory framework that allows people to “experiment and build exciting things” without turning crypto into a “haven for fraudsters.”
It remains unclear how the downsizing of the SEC’s cryptocurrency unit will impact ongoing legal proceedings. One of the most high-profile cases was filed in 2023 against Coinbase, accusing the platform of violating federal securities laws by operating as an unregistered exchange. However, after Trump’s victory, crypto companies have mobilized to retaliate against SEC officials who pursued legal action against them. Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, announced on social media that his company would no longer work with law firms that hired senior SEC officials involved in the agency’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies.
Gary Gensler, who stepped down from the SEC on the day of Trump’s inauguration, has joined the faculty at MIT, where he previously taught before being appointed SEC chairman by President Biden. Meanwhile, Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder of the crypto exchange Gemini, stated that his company would no longer hire MIT graduates—even as interns.
