By J.W. Verret. Law360. April 16, 2025.
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Four years ago, I wrote that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s approach to cryptocurrency regulation was “haphazard and inconsistent.” I argued that the agency’s decision to wait eight years before filing a complaint against Ripple Labs in December 2020 was irresponsible, and that the SEC needed to provide more clarity about when and how cryptocurrencies would be regulated.
In the waning days of Chair Jay Clayton’s tenure, the commission, in SEC v. Ripple in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, brought its first major action against developers of a blockchain token alleging the unregistered sales of a security. This started a chain reaction of dozens of such cases during Chair Gary Gensler’s tenure alleging the unregistered sales of securities against crypto developers in actions where no fraud occurred and where no pathway to registration was even available.