CryptoLink - December 2024 Updates

Heading into 2025, it is anticipated that there will be several changes in the regulatory enforcement agenda in the United States as relevant to digital assets, including due to the upcoming Trump presidency, along with Trump’s decision to appoint former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Paul Atkins to serve as Chair of the SEC, which is pending Senate confirmation. Throughout 2024, the SEC continued to actively pursue litigation against digital asset platforms including Coinbase and Kraken, software firm Consensys and threatened suits against nonfungible token marketplace OpenSea and decentralized exchange Uniswap. The SEC’s litigation against Binance is ongoing, even though Binance resolved alleged compliance failures with other federal regulators through a $4.5 billion settlement and a short prison sentence for its now former-CEO, Changpeng Zhao. Some commentators believe that under Mr. Atkins, the SEC’s crypto priorities will trend towards rulemaking rather than litigation and will be more focused on fraud cases as opposed to registration-focused charges.