Some previous enforcement actions against cryptocurrency companies failed to clearly benefit investors and misinterpreted federal securities laws, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Tuesday.
Since fiscal year 2022, the SEC has filed 95 investigations and assessed $2.3 billion in penalties for “accounting violations.” he said in the 2025 enforcement results statement.
“Together with seven cases related to the registration of crypto companies and six ‘dealer definition’ cases, these cases failed to establish any direct harm to investors resulting from these violations and resulted in no benefits or protections for investors.”
It also reflected a “caseload bias relative to investor protection issues,” misallocation of resources and misinterpretation of federal securities laws, the SEC said.
This is the latest example of the regulator’s changing approach to enforcement since it took on recent leadership in April 2025 under SEC Chairman Paul Atkins.
His predecessor, former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, was accused of taking a regulatory enforcement approach to cryptocurrencies. Since his departure, the SEC has taken a more amiable stance toward digital assets.
The SEC said it was focusing on quality, not quantity
In the run-up to Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration, the SEC’s enforcement division launched an “unprecedented rush” to bring cases and continued its “aggressive pursuit of new legal theories,” the agency said.
Atkins said the agency has since moved away from that approach, ending regulation through enforcement and refocusing on the commission’s core mission, prioritizing matters that provide meaningful investor protections and strengthen market integrity.
“We have redirected resources to the types of misconduct that cause the most harm – particularly fraud, market manipulation and breaches of trust – rather than approaches that favor volume penalties and record highs over true investor protection,” he added.
Consulting firm Cornerstone Research reported in November that under Atkins, the number of enforcement actions against public companies, including those involving cryptocurrencies, dropped by about 30% in fiscal 2025 compared to fiscal 2024.
In connection with its 2025 enforcement actions, the SEC said it had obtained orders for monetary relief totaling $17.9 billion, including $7.2 billion in civil penalties and the remainder in compensatory and judgment interest.
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“This year’s enforcement results clarify the shortcomings of these actions and their associated penalties and restore a definition and measure of enforcement effectiveness that is grounded in Congress’s original intent and focused on taking actions that actually prevent harm to investors, rather than headlines and inflated numbers,” the SEC said.
Some crypto companies are still in the firing line
Despite the change in SEC enforcement, several cryptocurrency companies were still subject to enforcement actions in 2025.
In May 2025, Unicoin and four of its current and former executives were sued by the SEC for allegedly raising $100 million by misleading investors about certificates that purported to convey rights to receive Unicoin tokens and shares. However, the platform accused the agency of distorting regulatory statements to build a case.
In April 2025, the SEC also filed a civil complaint against Ramil Ventura Palafox, CEO of Praetorian Group International, for allegedly orchestrating a $200 million Ponzi scheme. A parallel criminal case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice resulted in a 20-year prison sentence for Palafox in February.
