A new Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report revealed that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reassigned Jorge Tenreiro, its Chief Litigation Counsel amid shift in crypto regulations. Tenreiro was reassigned to the commission’s IT department.
It is worth noting that Tenreiro played a significant part in the lawsuits that involved several top cryptocurrency exchanges, including blockchain payment firms Ripple and Coinbase.
Enforcer who Slammed Crypto Firms to Take New Role Within SEC
Tenreiro has moved from overseeing a half-dozen lawsuits against crypto exchanges to maintaining the agency’s computer systems.
In addition to transferring the litigation officer, the SEC, under Mark Uyeda’s temporary regime, also repositioned a lawyer involved in developing accounting guidelines for crypto custody.
This recent move reflects the new administration’s efforts to change the crypto regulation trends in the US.
Before Donald Trump stepped into power in the US, several entities frowned at the SEC’s approach to crypto regulation.
The impaired industry relations around the virtual assets service providers was also frowned at
Gary Gensler, the former Chairman of the Commission, was keen on launching enforcement actions on these exchanges.
Most of these digital asset service providers were accused of violating federal securities laws.
Till now, Binance, one of the affected crypto exchanges, has been fighting to dismiss the SEC’s complaint brought against it.
Also, Ripple is still trying to resolve the lawsuit with the agency, a case that has extended into appeals stage.
US SEC Is Exploring New Crypto Regulation Approach
The crypto trajectory in the US is gradually moving from what it previously was.
Since Trump’s inauguration, a handful of policies and executive orders have been introduced in favor of the crypto sector.
On January 23, the crypto-friendly president signed an executive order establishing a framework for digital assets.
The order introduced the Presidential Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, to evaluate the creation of a national digital asset stockpile.
The US SEC also launched a Crypto Task Force shortly after, with popular Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce tapped as the leader.
According to the announcement, the task force is designated to “set the SEC on a sensible regulatory path.”
This is quite different from Gensler’s approach, which mandated that crypto firms register with the SEC, a directive with many grey areas.
“To date, the SEC has relied primarily on enforcement actions to regulate crypto retroactively and reactively, often adopting novel and untested legal interpretations along the way,” the Commission wrote to reflect a new pivot for the Mark Uyeda leadership.
Operation Chokepoint 2.0 To End Now
Amid the claims of crackdowns in the past, the concept of Operation Chokepoint 2.0 came to the limelight.
This term connotes one of the strategies regulators in the US employ to cut off crypto firms from enjoying banking services.
Precisely, it is a campaign launched by FDIC, Federal Reserve and others asking traditional banks to debank crypto firms.
For the longest time, the crypto community saw this as a strategy for US regulators to stifle growth in the digital asset ecosystem.
In their defense, US regulators claimed that the actions were necessary to ensure financial stability, prevent fraud, and combat money laundering.
So far, Coinbase has made significant progress in exposing these agencies’ schemes. Currently, lawmakers are conducting a hearing to understand the complaints and proffer a solution to help the industry thrive.
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