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SEC Enforcement Director to Step Down by End of Year
Enforcement Director Stephanie Avakian led SEC investigations during the heart of its ICO crackdown.
By Danny Nelson
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 10:41 a.m. Published Dec 10, 2020, 6:40 p.m.
Stephanie Avakian, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement director who led investigations since 2017, including during the entirety of SEC's initial coin offering (ICO) crackdown, plans to leave the agency this year.
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- SEC said Thursday that Avakian created the Cyber Unit responsible for managing crypto-related securities violations, especially the ICO projects that attempt to raise capital without filing.
- A CoinDesk review of SEC enforcement filings shows the regulator initiated at least 46 actions against ICOs during Avakian's tenure as director.
- Avakian took over the Enforcement Division in June 2017. She had previously served as deputy enforcement director from June 2014.
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- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
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Coinbase Sees Crypto Recovery Ahead as Liquidity Improves and Fed Rate Cut Odds Climb
The crypto exchange also took note of a so-called AI bubble that continues to go strong and a weaker U.S. dollar.
What to know:
- Coinbase Institutional is seeing a potential December recovery in crypto, citing improving liquidity and a shift in macroeconomic conditions that could favor risk assets like bitcoin.
- The firm's optimism is driven by rising odds of Federal Reserve rate cuts, with markets pricing in a 93% chance easing next week, and improving liquidity conditions.
- Several recent institutional developments, including Vanguard's crypto ETF policy reversal and Bank of America's greenlighting of crypto allocations, have contributed to bitcoin's rebound from recent lows.
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