Since SEC Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda was named Acting Chairman on January 21, 2025, the SEC has significantly shifted its approach to cryptocurrency regulation and enforcement actions, including through the formation of a crypto task force and a cyber and emerging technologies unit, as summarized below.

Formation of Crypto Task Force. On January 21, 2025, Acting Chairman Uyeda launched the SEC’s Crypto Task Force led by Commissioner Hester Peirce.  In the press release announcing the formation of the Crypto Task Force, the SEC stated that “the Task Force will collaborate with Commission staff and the public to set the SEC on a sensible regulatory path that respects the bounds of the law.”  The SEC’s webpage about the Crypto Task Force stated that, "[t]he scope of the Crypto Task Force’s focus will include assets colloquially referred to as digital assets, crypto assets, cryptocurrencies, digital coins and tokens, as well as protocols. The Crypto Task Force will help to draw clear regulatory lines, appropriately distinguish securities from non-securities, craft tailored disclosure frameworks, provide realistic paths to registration for both crypto assets and market intermediaries, ensure that investors have the information necessary to make investment decisions, and make sure that enforcement resources are deployed judiciously."

The SEC noted that, prior to the formation of the Crypto Task Force, the SEC had “relied primarily on enforcement actions to regulate crypto retroactively and reactively, often adopting novel and untested legal interpretations along the way.”

In light of the pending work of the Crypto Task Force, on January 23, 2025, the SEC rescinded a prior Staff Accounting Bulletin that provided interpretive guidance regarding accounting for obligations to safeguard crypto assets.  In addition, on February 27, 2025 the SEC announced the dismissal of a civil enforcement action against two related entities based on the SEC’s view that “the dismissal will facilitate the Commission’s ongoing efforts to reform and renew its regulatory approach to the crypto industry.”

On March 3, 2025, the SEC announced the members of the Crypto Task Force staff, which include staff from the Acting Chairman’s office and other divisions and offices across the SEC, and also announced that the Task Force would host a series of roundtables to discuss key areas of interest in the regulation of crypto assets. The Crypto Task Force held the first roundtable on March 21, 2025, and four additional roundtables have been scheduled for April 11, April 25, May 12 and June 6, 2025.

Formation of the Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit (CETU). On February 20, 2025, the SEC announced the creation of the CETU to combat cyber-related misconduct and to protect retail investors from bad actors in the emerging technologies space. According to the SEC’s press release, the CETU will focus on the following priority areas:

• "Fraud committed using emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning;
• Use of social media, the dark web, or false websites to perpetrate fraud;
• Hacking to obtain material nonpublic information;
• Takeovers of retail brokerage accounts;
• Fraud involving blockchain technology and crypto assets;
• Regulated entities’ compliance with cybersecurity rules and regulations; and
• Public issuer fraudulent disclosure relating to cybersecurity."