A recent meeting between President-Elect Donald Trump and Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek has reportedly led to the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the cryptocurrency exchange against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The lawsuit, filed in October, challenged the SEC’s authority over certain crypto companies. This withdrawal follows a warning issued to Crypto.com by the regulatory body, as reported by Decrypt.
The initial lawsuit aimed to prevent the SEC from expanding its jurisdiction over crypto firms that Crypto.com argued were operating within legal boundaries. The exchange accused the SEC of unfairly targeting the digital asset industry by classifying specific tokens as securities, thus placing them under the SEC’s regulatory purview. Crypto.com contended that this action overstepped the SEC’s legal authority and violated established procedures for implementing new regulations.
The lawsuit specifically named SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who plans to resign upon Trump’s inauguration in January, and other commissioners for their involvement in the alleged “regulation-by-enforcement” approach. With Gensler’s impending departure and the anticipated appointment of pro-cryptocurrency figure Paul Atkins, Crypto.com seems to be adopting a more cooperative stance.
The meeting between Marszalek and Trump reportedly centered on potential appointments that could influence crypto policy in the upcoming administration, as well as Trump’s proposal for a national bitcoin reserve.
Trump initially unveiled his plan for a national bitcoin reserve at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville earlier this year. He pledged to implement regulations crafted by individuals who support the crypto industry, not those who oppose it. Trump emphasized that the strategic national bitcoin reserve would be established differently from the current government holdings, most of which were acquired through law enforcement actions.
This represents a significant shift from Trump’s 2019 perspective on cryptocurrencies, when he characterized Bitcoin’s value as highly volatile and unsubstantiated. The withdrawal of the lawsuit signals a potential change in the regulatory landscape for the cryptocurrency industry under the incoming Trump administration.
