SEC Commissioner Peirce warns that a change in pace doesn't mean free rein for bad actors in crypto

Just because the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has decided to drop several crypto-related lawsuits and probes doesn't mean the agency will not pursue fraud cases going forward, one of the agency's top chiefs said on Thursday.  

Early on during President Donald Trump's second term, the securities watchdog dropped several high-profile cases — against firms including Coinbase, Uniswap, and OpenSea, among others. However, that does not mean people can do whatever they want in the space, Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce told a crowd at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas. 

"The goal is to use our enforcement tool for what it was intended to be used for, which is when there are clear rules and people violate them, then we can use our enforcement tool," Peirce, who is a critic of the SEC's previous tactic of "regulation through enforcement," said. "It's certainly not to say that there will not be enforcement. There's a lot of bad activity, as we all know, that's perpetrated in the name of crypto." 

Over the past few months, since President Trump took office, the SEC has dropped several cases and investigations against crypto firms, with many of those focused on registration violations, and put a pause on a fraud case related to crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun. More recently the SEC brought charges against crypto project Unicoin for allegedly offering fraud certificates for its token and stock with misrepresented value. 

That all comes after former SEC Chair Gary Gensler left the agency in January. Gensler had warned that crypto was "rife with fraud and manipulation" and said that many cryptocurrencies would be securities. 

Most crypto assets are probably not themselves securities, Peirce said on Thursday, countering Gensler. 

Peirce, who has also been nicknamed "crypto mom" given her openness to the industry, also spoke on Thursday about investor loss and the SEC's role. Peirce called for consistency, specifically among more libertarian folks in crypto. 

When investors lose money in crypto, that doesn't mean that the SEC will step in, Peirce said in Vegas. 

"[They say,] 'Hey crypto mom, where's my bailout fund?'" Peirce said. 

"Yes, you should have freedom to make your own choices," she added. "When it goes wrong, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, learn from it and do better next time."