SEC pulls back on Crypto crackdown, reassigns 50+ lawyers as Trump administration pushes deregulation.

The New York Times reports that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has sharply scaled back its aggressive crypto enforcement program following Donald Trump’s return to the White House and the installation of a more deregulation‑oriented leadership team at the agency. The SEC has reassigned more than 50 lawyers and other staff who had been focused on crypto cases, effectively dismantling the prior task-force style approach that produced high‑profile actions against major exchanges and token issuers under former Chair Gary Gensler. This shift aligns with broader Trump administration goals to roll back what it characterizes as overreach in financial regulation and to reduce the use of enforcement as a primary policy tool in emerging markets such as digital assets. According to the Times, the pullback has included dismissing or freezing several pending cases and reframing the SEC’s crypto strategy away from large headline‑generating lawsuits and toward a narrower interpretation of its investor‑protection mandate. New leadership has emphasized “course correction,” criticizing the previous regime for chasing media attention and case volume instead of demonstrable investor harm, and has backed a new crypto task force oriented around providing clearer rules and registration pathways rather than pursuing broad claims that many tokens are unregistered securities. The changes have been welcomed by many crypto firms, which view them as a “new day” for the industry, but have alarmed some career SEC lawyers and investor advocates who argue that the retreat leaves retail investors more exposed in a market still marked by volatility, opaque disclosures, and past large‑scale frauds.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

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