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New SEC Cyber Unit Closes Chapter on Agency's Crypto Enforcement Emphasis
The SEC's Republican leaders have shifted what had been a crypto-focused enforcement squad into a smaller group with a broader responsibility.
Feb 20, 2025, 4:54 p.m.
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What to know:
- A new name for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's former crypto enforcement unit seems to illustrate the changing approach the agency is taking toward the industry.
- The SEC has removed "crypto" from the name of the group and backed away from the previous digital-assets-heavy focus.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission unit tasked with chasing bad guys in the crypto space will be smaller and called something significantly different, the agency said Thursday, further cementing its trend away from an aggressive enforcement stance against the industry.
In three years, the same internal group has transitioned from the "Cyber Unit" to the "Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit" and now to the "Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit," seemingly taking some focus off its crypto role. In 2022, then-Chairman Gary Gensler's SEC announced the enforcement squad was almost doubling to 50 people. The latest announcement says it will include "approximately 30 fraud specialists and attorneys across multiple SEC offices."
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
"The unit will not only protect investors but will also facilitate capital formation and market efficiency by clearing the way for innovation to grow," Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda said in a statement, which also announced Laura D’Allaird as the head of the overhauled group."It will root out those seeking to misuse innovation to harm investors and diminish confidence in new technologies.”
That language sharply contrasts with the crypto-focused rhetoric from Gensler in 2022, when he said the unit would pursue "those seeking to take advantage of investors in crypto markets."
President Donald Trump elevated Republican Uyeda from his role as commissioner to run the agency on an interim basis while the U.S. Senate considers the nomination of former Commission Paul Atkins for the permanent job. Uyeda isn't sitting on his hands during the wait and has already been remaking the SEC, especially in relaxing its strong past distrust of crypto.
Read More: SEC Backs Off Crypto Dealer Fight, Continues Resetting Industry Approach
Uyeda formed a Crypto Task Force at the SEC, under the watch of fellow Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce, and this enforcement unit is meant to "complement the work" of that group. In addition to still hunting for "fraud involving blockchain technology and crypto assets," the unit will watch for unlawful uses of artificial intelligence, hacks and other cybersecurity missteps.
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Crypto PAC Fairshake leaps into first midterm Senate race with $5 million in Alabama
The industry's leading campaign-finance operation is getting behind a pro-crypto candidate, Barry Moore, in Alabama's Republican Senate primary.
알아야 할 것:
- The crypto industry's campaign-finance arm is flexing with an opening $5 million for a Republican Senate primary election in Alabama as the congressional midterms — still nine months away — begin in earnest.
- Fairshake and its affiliate political action committees say they've got $193 million to spend, so far, which dwarfs most industry PACs and even some of the largest funds directly serving the political parties.
- Alabama congressman Barry Moore will receive supportive advertising with this money, and a Fairshake representative said the group has also dedicated funds to back Representative French Hill, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
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