Mark Ueda, who served as acting chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) before Paul Atkins’ confirmation, said the agency has dropped civil cases against cryptocurrency companies filed under the previous administration as it makes a “180-degree change” in rulemaking.
In a Wednesday panel at the Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy’s Financial Markets Quality Conference, Ueda said The SEC dropped cases involving crypto companies in early 2025 because it could hurt the agency’s credibility in arguing in court against planned policy changes. Ueda argued that there were “significant concerns” that lawsuits against crypto companies were “justifiable under the law.”
“I do not have our litigants, even though they have cases that were allowed under the previous administration, stand up in court and issue a commission interpretation that is a 180-degree change from what they argued for in that court,” the commissioner said. “I think it hurts (our) credibility as an agency.”
SEC Commissioner Mark Ueda. Source: Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy
Under Ueda, who was acting SEC chairman from January to April 2025, the commission dropped cases filed against Kraken, Ripple Labs, Coinbase and others that many critics characterized as payback for industry support for President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign. Trump promised to fire former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, under whom many of the lawsuits were filed, “on day one” if elected. Gensler resigned the day Trump took office.
Ueda has been a commissioner at the SEC since 2022 and currently serves at the agency’s helm alongside Atkins and Commissioner Hester Pierce. With Pearce’s departure expected in November, the agency’s leadership panel will have just two of its five members, and Trump has not announced any nominations for potential replacements.
Related: SEC Grants Temporary Exemption for Tokenized US Stock Trading
