• A Representative, Glenn Ivey, flagged an issue regarding the decision of the SEC to halt its case against Sun.
  • The Chairman, Atkins, replied to the concern and clarified that the case against Sun is still active and the SEC had not dropped it.

The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States, Paul Atkins, has faced scrutiny on May 21 for the stance of the SEC on Trump-associated mememecoin and its management of the fraud case associated with Justin Sun. 

The questions arose at the time of a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, which aimed on funding and supervision of federal agencies, including the agency. 

A Representative, Glenn Ivey, flagged an issue regarding the decision of the SEC to halt its case against Sun and whether his latest connection to a meme coin associated with President Donald Trump could cause dispute. 

He also highlighted the $30 million token purchase of Tron from World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm associated with Trump. Ivey mentioned that, “This, frankly, to me, smells very bad and my hope would be that the agency would be investigating that piece.”

The  Case is Not Dropped 

The Chairman, Atkins, replied to the concern and clarified that the case against Sun is still active and the SEC had not dropped it. However, he didn’t provide any further details. Atkins summarized that under the current policy, coins are not considered securities. 

Sun has publicly accepted that he supports Trump’s digital asset and posted on X that he is among the top 220 holders of the TRUMP token and will be attending the gala dinner hosted by Trump. 

Under the leadership of the previous chairman, Gensler, the agency was tougher on crypto and took enforcement actions against various major players. The new leadership comes with a shift from regulation-by-enforcement, giving a guarantee of structured policymaking for the industry. 

Atkins has also said that his major priority is to build a rational regulatory framework for crypto asset markets that sets up transparent rules of the road for the issuance, custody, and trading of crypto assets while discouraging malicious actors from breaching the law. 

The changing stance of the SEC comes amid increasing political and financial interests and converges with the crypto ecosystem. 

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