Art Rachen, UNCLASH
Recent developments in the crypto world have been at a quick pace to open in 2025 not only signaling, but in some cases explicitly declaring the Trump administration to relax or considerably eliminate the regulations and application of cryptographic markets. On January 23, 2025, President Trump signed an executive decree in order to “provide regulatory clarity and certainty” declaring a new approach to the regulations and the application of cryptography. On February 4, the head of a working group created by the American Securities and Exchange (SEC) commission described the elements that the working group provided for treating and criticizing the policies of previous administration on the crypto. On February 21, 2025, the SEC closed its investigations on Opensea and Robinhood without taking other measures and rejected complaints against Coinbase. Then, on February 27, 2025, the SEC announced that the same would no longer be considered as titles subject to the monitoring of the dry.
However, although the new administration has declared its intention to adopt a much more practical approach to the regulations and the application of cryptocurrencies, it is possible that all these efforts are not necessarily dead. On February 24, 2025, OKX pleaded guilty to an operating manager of a silver company without license accepting huge fines. The apparent efforts of the administration to limit the regulations of the cryptocurrency markets seem to put in order to rest the efforts of the anterior congress to legislate the application of cryptocurrencies between the dry and the CFTC. Meanwhile, private disputes continue against crypto exchanges and transmitters indicating that even if the federal application can become much more relaxed, litigants civil can become a control over the industry.
President Trump published a decree concerning the crypto on January 23, 2025. The decree created an inter-ages working group, called the president’s working group on the digital asset markets (the “working group”). The working group is chaired by David Sacks (the “chair”), which Trump tried to be the “crypto and the IA tsar” of the administration.
The working group is required to report to the president with its conclusions, as follows:
- Within 30 days of the date of the order, the working group must identify all regulations, orientation documents, orders or other elements that affect digital assets.
- Within 60 days of the date of the order, each agency must submit recommendations as to whether each regulation identified, orientation document, order or other element must be canceled or modified, or, for elements other than regulations, adopted in a regulation.
- Within 180 days of the date of the ordinance, the working group must submit a report to the assistant to the President for the national economic policy with regulatory and legislative proposals which advance the policies established in this order. The report will propose a federal regulatory framework governing the issue and operation of digital assets, including stable parts in the United States, a likely difference in previous administration. In addition, the report will examine the legislative provisions concerning the structure of the market, monitoring, consumer protection and risk management.
On January 21, 2025, two days before President Trump signed the decree, the SEC created his own cryptographic working group (the “working group”). The working group is “dedicated to the development of a complete and clear regulatory framework for cryptographic assets” and chaired by Hester Peirce (a commissioner named Trump at the SEC). Pierce criticized the previous practice of the dry to count mainly on application actions to regulate retroactive cryptography. Consequently, ”
On February 4, 2025, Commissioner Peirce published a statement listing the elements on which the working group is currently working:
- Safety status: The working group examines the different types of cryptographic assets and their status of securities.
- Lighting: The working group identifies the areas that do not fall under the jurisdiction of the dry and invite requests for letters without action to help clarify the jurisdiction.
- Offers of coins and tokens: the working group plans to recommend temporary prospective and retroactive relief for parts or tokens if certain information is provided and there is a consent to the anti-fraude jurisdiction of the dry. These tokens would be considered non-security.
- Recorded offers: The working group considers a rationalized path to the recording of the tokens.
- Concessionaire for special use: The working group explores the updates of the concessionaire of brokers for special use no declaration of action to tackle the brokers more effectively which hold titles of cryptographic assets alongside cryptographic assets which are not titles.
- Wardrobe solutions for investment advisers: the working group seeks to provide an appropriate childcare manager for advisers.
- Crypto-loan and development: the working group hopes to give clarity on the question of whether the cryptocurrency and development programs are covered by the securities law.
- Products negotiated in exchange for crypto: the working group will work to clarify the approach used when considering SRO applications to list new products.
- Compensation agencies and transfer agents: The working group hopes to improve the intersection of crypto, compensation agencies and transfer rules.
- Sandbox cross -border: The working group understands that many cryptographic projects are international and will consider the means to facilitate cross -border experimentation.
Apparently in accordance with CRIS critics towards the measures to apply the history, the SEC has recently ended the surveys of the cryptographic activities of Robinhood and Opensea without taking other measures. On February 21, 2025, the SEC informed Robinhood Crypto that he would not go forward with an action in application. Form 8-K disclosing the opinion of the well that Robinhood received in May 2024, which alleged violations of articles 15 (A) and 17 of the EXCHAGEN ACT SECURITIES of 1934, can be found here. Also on February 21, 2025, the co-founder of Opensea, the largest global marketplace for non-fascinated tokens, announced that the SEC closed its survey without categorizing NFT as titles.
In addition, on February 21, 2025, Coinbase, the greatest exchange of American crypto, announced that the SEC had in principle agreed to reject the accusations against Coinbase. The trial against Coinbase was filed in 2023 and accused Coquerbase of operating as an unregistered scholarship, broker and compensation agency. More information on the dismissal Coinbase can be found here.
In accordance with the end of the above execution measures, on February 27, 2025, the SEC announced that “neither the buyers of memes parts nor the holders are protected by the federal law on securities” because the documents even “do not imply the offer and the sale of securities under the federal law on securities”. Consequently, “people who participate in the offer and sale of documents even do not need to record their transactions with the Commission under the ACT Securities of 1933.”
Despite the burst of closed surveys, on February 24, 2025, one of the largest derivatives and punctual cryptography exchanges guilty guilty to a chief operating company without license and agreed to lose more than $ 420.3 million and pay an additional fine of more than $ 84.4 million. The complaint filed against OKX is available here.
The prosecutors were missing OKX for having enabled American investors to negotiate the scholarship, which did not have adequate policies and procedures to combat money laundering, despite its official ban against American customers.
Under the OKX advocacy agreement, the United States of OKX – OKCOIN USA, Inc. can continue to carry out business with American investors. OKX’s cooperation with the survey reduced its fine beach, and OKX is not subject to the supervision of an instructor.
When publicizing a declaration concerning OKX advocacy, the American prosecutor Matthew Podolsky warned the financial institutions that there will be “consequences for the financial institutions which prevail by the American markets but will violate the law by allowing criminal activity to continue”. When examined in combination with the rejection of the trial against Coinbase and the completion of surveys on Robinhood and Opensea, it seems that the Commission will continue to continue the anti-white and anti-fraud issues, but can reduce cases so as not to register as a broker, reseller or exchange until the regulatory clarity is obtained.
Notwithstanding a drop in application, private collective remedies should remain robust. For example, on January 14, 2024, OKX was appointed in a collective appeal which claims that OKX authorized criminals to whiten stolen funds. The applicant Alister Watt noted that a “material part” of his stolen crypto ended up in an OKX account, and that OKX and some affiliates have not applied the anti-flange procedures and, therefore, should be responsible.
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