Since the change in leadership at the SEC, the agency has been dismissing lawsuits against crypto companies on a weekly basis. Investigations have been dropped against crypto exchanges such as Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, and Robinhood, as well as decentralized projects like Uniswap. The case Ripple vs. SEC is still ongoing.
During the Biden administration, former investment banker Gary Gensler led the SEC. Under his leadership, the agency filed lawsuits against crypto projects from all sectors. In a full-scale kamikaze attack, the SEC launched 100 crypto-specific enforcement actions, often without legal grounds. Most of the affected companies were serious players in the field, and the strategy faced strong opposition even within the agency. None of the measures prevented the catastrophic collapses of Terra/Luna, BlockFi, Celsius, or FTX. With Trump's change in direction, the SEC's approach radically shifted. Here is an overview of all the lawsuits the SEC has dismissed since the appointment of interim Chairman Mark Uyeda.
Subscribe to our newsletter
The best articles of the week, directly delivered into your mailbox.
SEC vs. Coinbase
Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange, has been advocating for clearer crypto regulations with the SEC for years. After months of back-and-forth, the agency responded in March 2023 with the announcement of an enforcement action — also known as a "Wells Notice." A Wells Notice informs a company that SEC staff recommend initiating enforcement measures against it for possible violations of securities laws. It is not a formal charge or court proceeding, but it usually leads to one. The Wells Notice raised questions about almost all Coinbase services. Specific tradable cryptocurrencies such as Solana, Coinbase Earn (Staking), Coinbase Prime, and Coinbase Wallet were classified by the agency as "unregistered securities."
Nearly two years later, on February 27, the SEC announced the dismissal of the case against Coinbase. The decision was made by the new crypto task force led by SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce.
SEC vs. Binance, Kraken, Gemini, and Robinhood
Following the Coinbase precedent, the SEC soon dropped all other lawsuits against crypto exchanges. Among the affected companies were the globally leading crypto exchange Binance, the traditional broker Robinhood, and the two U.S. exchanges Kraken and Gemini. Even decentralized exchanges Uniswap and OpenSea were freed from their lawsuits. The only remaining legal case is against the now insolvent crypto exchange Bittrex. Other lawsuits the SEC dropped targeted:
- Justin Sun, founder of the Tron blockchain
- Yuga Labs, creators of the once-popular NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)
- Consensys, developer of the Ethereum wallet MetaMask
SEC vs. Ripple remains pending
One of the most important lawsuits is still ongoing. Since December 2020, the SEC and Ripple, the issuer of the cryptocurrency XRP, have been involved in a legal case. The agency accused Ripple of selling an unregistered security to U.S. investors. Two and a half years later, U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres issued a groundbreaking ruling stating that XRP is not inherently a security when sold to retail investors on public exchanges. However, she also ruled that Ripple's institutional sales constituted unregistered securities offerings. For this, Torres imposed a fine of 125 million USD, much less than the 1.3 billion USD the SEC originally demanded.
In October 2024, however, the SEC announced plans to appeal parts of Judge Torres' decision. The appeal challenged the court's decision regarding Ripple's XRP sales on digital asset platforms, personal sales by executives, and other XRP distributions. Since the SEC is now backing away from nearly all crypto enforcement actions, the Ripple case may be nearing its conclusion. After all, Trump specifically named XRP as a candidate for the strategic crypto reserve.
