Mark Uyeda, who served as acting chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) before Paul Atkins’s confirmation, stated that the agency dropped civil cases against cryptocurrency companies filed under the previous administration to avoid issues with credibility in court.
In a panel discussion at the Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy’s Financial Markets Quality Conference, Uyeda explained that the SEC dropped cases involving crypto companies in early 2025 as it could have hurt the agency’s credibility in arguing positions in court contrary to its planned policy changes. Uyeda argued that there had been significant concerns that the cases against crypto companies were justifiable under law.
“I’m not about to have our litigators, even though they’re having cases that were authorized under the prior administration, stand up in court and have a commission interpretation be issued that is a 180-degree change from what they’d been arguing for that court,” said the commissioner. “I think that hurts [our] credibility as an agency.”
Under Uyeda, who was acting SEC chair from January to April 2025, the commission dropped cases filed against Kraken, Ripple Labs, Coinbase, and others. Many critics characterized this as payback for the industry’s support of President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign. Trump had promised to fire former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, under whom many of the cases were filed, “on day one” if elected. Gensler resigned the day Trump took office.
Uyeda has been a commissioner at the SEC since 2022 and currently serves at the agency’s leadership alongside Atkins and Commissioner Hester Peirce. With Peirce’s departure expected in November, the agency will have only two of its five members on its leadership panel, and Trump has not announced any nominations for potential replacements.
