Under the Trump administration, the SEC is adopting a new strategy in its relations with the digital asset industry.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has agreed to close two legal cases against Consensys and Coinbase.
On February 27, Joseph Lubin, founder of Consensys, announced that the SEC has agreed “in principle” to end the case against MetaMask, one of the most widely used Ethereum wallets.
Lubin stated on X:
The case, initiated last June in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, accused Consensys of violating the law through the MetaMask staking service. The legal dispute escalated when Consensys countered by suing the SEC for categorizing Ethereum as a security.
In parallel, on February 27, the SEC filed a voluntary dismissal in its case against Coinbase, definitively ending the proceedings. The agency agreed to dismiss “with prejudice” all legal disputes related to Coinbase and Coinbase Global, withdrawing both the initial June 2023 case and the interlocutory appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
The SEC stated that the dismissal “will facilitate the Commission’s ongoing efforts to reform and renew its regulatory approach to the crypto industry.” SEC Interim Chairman Mark Uyeda stated:
“It is time for the Commission to rectify its approach and develop a more transparent crypto policy.”
The SEC’s decision to dismiss the case against Coinbase follows similar dismissals against Robinhood Crypto, Gemini, Uniswap Labs, and OpenSea in the past week.
