The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has published the results of law enforcement in the fiscal year 2025, stating in the report that several cases related to past crypto registrations were misinterpreted concerning federal securities law.

This is seen as the latest sign of a decisive shift in the agency's law enforcement approach under the leadership of chair Paul Atkins, who took office in April 2025.

The SEC's past crypto cases have been scrutinized intensively.

The report states that under the leadership of former chair Gary Gensler since 2022, the regulatory agency has undertaken 95 cases focused on companies that failed to keep records, resulting in a total fine of 2.3 billion USD.

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The SEC also specifically identified 7 cases related to the registration of crypto companies and 6 instances concerning 'the definition of a securities dealer.' According to this report, these cases 'found no direct harm to investors' and 'did not provide any benefits or protections to investors.' The report further stated that these cases

This reflects what the current commission views as a misinterpretation of federal securities laws, a misallocation of the commission's resources, and an emphasis on the number of cases rather than the importance of investor protection.

Paul Atkins, the SEC chair, stated that the agency has shifted its approach from 'regulation by enforcement' to now focusing efforts on cases that directly protect investors and strengthen the stability of the financial markets.

We have redirected resources to behaviors that pose the most severe harm, particularly fraud, market manipulation, and breaches of trust, and have avoided approaches that emphasize the number of cases and high fines as statistics rather than actual investor protection, he added.

Importantly, since February 2025, the SEC has discontinued law enforcement against Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, Consensys, Cumberland DRW, Dragonchain, and Balina.

The report also revealed that in the fiscal year 2025, the SEC filed a total of 456 enforcement actions, consisting of 303 individual cases and 69 administrative proceedings.

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