The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is starting to scale back its crypto enforcement unit

The SEC shake-up comes just hours after SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce revealed the agency's new approach to regulating the crypto space.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is starting to scale back its crypto enforcement unit, the New York Times reported on Feb. 4.

Some employees of the 50-staff unit will be shifted to other departments in the agency, it reported, citing five people familiar with the matter.

This change in the SEC stance also saw one of the unit’s top lawyers removed from the securities watchdog’s enforcement arm, it added.

The SEC shake-up comes just hours after SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce revealed the agency’s new approach to regulating the crypto space.

Part of the new approach will be evaluating the security status of digital assets, which could provide “retroactive relief” for some token offerings, she said.

Up until now, the SEC’s “handling of crypto has been marked by legal imprecision and commercial impracticability,” Pierce said. She went on to liken the regulator’s old approach to regulating digital assets to a car careening down the road.

With the formation of the new SEC task force, led by Peirce, the SEC Commissioner hopes to create an environment that lets developers “experiment and build interesting things.”

Former Advisor To Gary Gensler Says SEC Is Removing ”Guardrails”

Corey Frayer, a former senior advisor to Gary Gensler during his tenure at the regulator’s helm, says the regulator’s new leadership is removing the “speed limits and guardrails” that made the US capital markets the “strongest in the world.”

Gensler led the agency in 33 crypto-related enforcement actions against 90 defendants and respondents in 2024, according to Cornerstone Research. That prompted critics to accuse it of regulatory overreach.