The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped or paused over a dozen ongoing cases

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped or paused over a dozen ongoing cases (and lost one)

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission appears to have closed almost all of its outstanding crypto cases – at least the publicly disclosed ones – in the last two months since Mark Uyeda took over as acting chair of the agency.

In many of the court filings, the SEC argued that it needs to pull these cases while the regulator’s new crypto task force reassesses how exactly it applies securities laws to digital assets, though in at least some of these cases the SEC is leaving itself no recourse to sue again should it find some cryptos from previously active suits are indeed securities.

One left?

Unicoin appears to be the only crypto subject to an SEC investigation that is still ongoing.

The narrative

After the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lost its case against Ripple and a federal judge shot down its case against Pulsechain and HEX, the agency is pulling back on its crypto enforcement activity.

Since U.S. President Donald Trump retook office just over two months ago and appointed Commissioner Mark Uyeda as acting chair, the SEC has dropped or paused over a dozen cases (and lost one) according to court filings and company announcements.

Breaking it down:

Ripple: Ripple announced it had reached an agreement with the SEC to drop both the regulator’s appeal of a federal judge’s 2023 ruling and RIpple’s cross-appeal. Ripple will receive back $75 million of the $125 million fine it was assessed by a federal judge. The agreement does not yet appear to be on the public court docket.

Coinbase:Coinbase announced last month it had reached an agreement with the SEC to drop the regulator’s ongoing case against it. The SEC filed to withdraw the case with prejudice – meaning it cannot bring the same charges again – and a judge signed off on the withdrawal at the end of February. The SEC alleged that Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), Sandbox (SAND), Filecoin (FIL), Axie Infinity (AXS), Chiliz (CHZ), Flow (FLOW), Internet Computer (ICP), Near (NEAR), Voyager (VGX), Dash (DASH) and Nexo (NEXO) all appeared to be traded as securities in its initial lawsuit.

ConsenSys: The SEC said it would drop its case against ConsenSys over the MetaMask wallet, CEO Joe Lubin said last month, and a joint stipulation dismissing the case with prejudice was filed on March 27. A court docket entry dated March 28 said the civil case was terminated.

Kraken: The SEC told Kraken it would drop its case against the exchange alleging it violated securities laws and commingled customer and corporate funds earlier this month. A joint stipulation dismissing the case was filed on March 27, though a judge does not appear to have signed off just yet.

Cumberland DRW: The SEC told Cumberland DRW it would drop its case alleging it was acting as an unregistered securities dealer earlier this month. The SEC and Cumberland filed a motion to stay proceedings on March 18, saying “the parties have agreed in principle to dismiss this litigation with prejudice” but needed three weeks to work out the details. The judge overseeing the case granted the motion, ordering the parties to file a joint status report by April 8 unless the dismissal filing is on the docket by then.

Pulsechain: A federal judge dismissed the SEC's suit against Pulsechain and HEX, saying the agency did not plausibly show that the project targeted U.S. investors and that it had jurisdiction over the case. The SEC has until April 21 to file an amended complaint.

Immutable: The SEC told Immutable Labs it closed its investigation into the Web3 gaming firm, it said earlier this week.

Yuga Labs: The SEC closed its investigation into Yuga Labs, the NFT firm said earlier this month.

Robinhood: The SEC told trading platform Robinhood it closed its investigation into the company, it said late last month.

OpenSea: The SEC closed its investigation into OpenSea, the NFT marketplace's CEO said late last month.

Uniswap: The SEC closed its investigation into Uniswap Labs, the firm announced last month.

Gemini: The SEC closed its investigation into Gemini, co-founder Cameron Winklevoss said last month.

Binance: The SEC and Binance (alongside the various affiliated parties/co-defendants) filed to pause the regulator’s case for 60 days in early February. The judge overseeing the case paused the case until April 14, ordering the parties to file a joint status report by then. The SEC alleged commingling violations alongside securities law violations, as well as allowing U.S. persons to trade on the global platform.

Tron Foundation: The SEC and the Tron Foundation (alongside the various affiliated parties/co-defendants named) filed to pause the SEC’s case for 60 days in late February. The judge granted the motion, which should