Less than a month before a new United States presidential administration and Congress are set to be sworn into office, many figures in the digital asset industry speculate the change in leadership could lead to more favorable regulations and laws.
For some executives, any change in policy from the US government could be apparent through actions from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Under SEC Chair Gary Genser and his predecessor Jay Clayton, the commission filed several enforcement actions against US crypto firms over allegations of unregistered securities offerings, including Ripple and Coinbase.
Ripple CLO’s regulatory hopes for 2025. Source: Stuart Alderoty
In a Dec. 31 X post, Ripple chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty said he hoped the SEC would affirm what he considered to be “principles” in regard to regulating digital assets, including that “a token is never a security, although it can be the subject of a security transaction.”
Ripple is currently appealing an August 2024 judgment in its case against the SEC, which found the firm liable for $125 million.
Others like Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal seemed to support the implications on the SEC for the US Supreme Court overturning the Chevron doctrine in 2024. The June opinion removed the practice of courts generally deferring to agencies’ interpretations of laws and regulations and required them to “exercise their independent judgment,” suggesting that judges could modify their approach to SEC cases involving digital assets.
What’s next for crypto enforcement in the US?
There are several court cases between the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) against crypto firms that are expected to move forward in 2025.
After a year of sentencing former FTX executives as well as sending former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao to prison for four months, US authorities will look at the criminal cases against former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky and Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon, recently extradited from Montenegro.
Any change in leadership at the US Attorney’s office in New York — where many civil and criminal cases against crypto firms and executives are handled — or at the SEC or CFTC could potentially upend existing cases.
Donald Trump has already proposed replacing Gensler as SEC Chair with former commissioner Paul Atkin and Damian Williams with Jay Clayton as US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
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