Following Trump's inauguration as the 47th U.S. president, a significant shift occurred.

For years, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) engaged in legal battles with some of the most prominent names in crypto, including exchanges like Coinbase and Uniswap

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been involved in legal battles with several prominent crypto firms in recent years.

The SEC’s enforcerment-focused approach, largely driven by former chair Gary Gensler, has sparked controversy among industry insiders. Critics have accused the agency of stifling innovation by attempting to regulate through lawsuits instead of establishing clear guidelines, ultimately pushing innovation out of the U.S.

Following the inauguration of the 47th U.S. president, Trump, there has been a noticeable shift at the SEC, with the new leadership opting to drop or temporarily suspend several cases and signaling a more cooperative approach to crypto oversight.

Here are some of the crypto firms whose cases have been dropped or suspended:

Gemini

The dispute between Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revolved around Gemini’s Earn program. In January 2023, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Gemini and its partner, Genesis Global Capital, alleging that the Earn program was an unregistered securities offering.

Gemini had partnered with Genesis to provide customers with the opportunity to earn high-yield returns on their crypto deposits. The SEC argued that this constituted an unregistered securities offering, rendering it illegal under U.S. law.

The situation escalated when Genesis encountered difficulties and halted all outflows in November 2022, later filing for bankruptcy. Consequently, many Gemini Earn users found themselves unable to withdraw their funds.

Gemini, however, maintained that no wrongdoing was committed and contested the SEC’s claims. The legal proceedings continued with discussions of potential settlements. Gemini asserted that the program was structured appropriately, while the SEC insisted that it violated securities laws.

Finally, on February 24, 2025, Cameron, the co-founder of Gemini, announced that the SEC had decided to drop all cases against the crypto firm.

“This comes 699 days after the start of their investigation and 277 days after they sent us a Wells Notice,” he wrote on his X account.

He also called for reimbursement from the SEC for the false allegations, which Cameron said had caused significant damage to the company and the industry, adding that several developers had left the company, unwilling to become further entangled in the case.

“They should be ashamed,” he said.

After former SEC boss Gary Gensler had threatened to put a ban on MIT graduates at a U.S. agency, Cameron said that “there should be a process that bars those like Gary Gensler who weaponize the law, as well those who participate in the weaponization, from ever being appointed to or hired by an agency again.”

Justin Sun, Tron and Bitforrex

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is suing Justin Sun and his companies—Tron Foundation, BitTorrent Foundation, and Rainberry—for allegedly offering unregistered securities, manipulating trading volumes, and secretly paying celebrities to promote TRX and BTT tokens.

The SEC also accused Sun’s companies of engaging in wash trading to create a false impression of market activity and liquidity in order to deceive investors.

Justin Sun is the founder of Tron (TRX) and the former CEO of BitTorrent. BitTorrent, a P2P file-sharing protocol created in 2001, was acquired by TRON in 2018, which then launched the BTT token. Tron (TRX) is a blockchain platform for decentralized apps and digital content, known for its fast, low-cost transactions.

Sun has vigorously contested the charges. His defense argued that the SEC lacked jurisdiction over foreign digital asset sales. In August 2024, a judge ruled in Sun’s favor by rejecting an SEC motion to introduce new arguments in the case. This decision was seen as a setback for the SEC, as the court denied its request for a pre-trial conference.

More recently, Sun and the SEC have jointly requested to pause the case while they explore a “potential resolution.” The parties believe this would serve their best interests and conserve judicial resources. This move follows a pattern seen in the SEC’s cases against other crypto firms like Coinbase and Binance.

ConsenSys

ConsenSys, a leading blockchain software company founded by Joseph Lubin in 2014, is focused on developing Ethereum and Web3. The company has incubated key projects like MetaMask, Infura, and Truffle and is a major player in the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. ConsenSys aims to drive decentralized innovation around the world.

The legal battle between the SEC and ConsenSys began when the SEC sued ConsenSys for allegedly operating as an unregistered securities broker. This lawsuit arose from MetaMask, a popular crypto wallet tool developed by ConsenSys.

ConsenSys had previously engaged in a dispute with the SEC over its plans to classify Ethereum as a security, which ultimately led to the SEC dropping its investigation into the blockchain network.

Now, the SEC has agreed