Former SEC chair Uyeda says dropping Coinbase, Ripple and Kraken cases avoided a “180-degree” legal contradiction

Uyeda, who served as acting chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from January to April 2025, said the agency was preparing for a major shift in its approach to cryptocurrency regulation when it decided to abandon a number of cases filed under the previous administration.

His comments came during a panel at the Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy’s Financial Markets Quality Conference, where he discussed the reasoning behind the SEC’s change in approach to crypto enforcement.

The SEC had pursued enforcement actions against several major cryptocurrency companies, including Kraken, Ripple Labs and Coinbase. Those cases were subsequently dropped while Uyeda was serving as acting chair.

Why SEC Crypto cases were dismissed

Uyeda said the SEC was preparing what he described as a “180-degree change” in its approach to cryptocurrency rules. Continuing to litigate cases brought under the previous administration, he argued, could have placed the agency’s lawyers in the position of defending regulatory interpretations that the commission itself was preparing to abandon.

“I’m not about to have our litigators, even though they’re having cases that were authorized under the prior administration, stand up in court and have a commission interpretation be issued that is a 180-degree change from what they’d been arguing for that court,” Uyeda said.

The former acting chair said maintaining those positions could undermine the SEC’s standing before the courts. The issue, according to Uyeda, was not simply whether the agency could continue pursuing the litigation, but whether doing so while preparing a fundamentally different regulatory framework would create contradictions in its legal arguments.

“I think that hurts [our] credibility as an agency,” he added.

Uyeda also said there were serious questions about whether some of the cases against cryptocurrency companies were legally justified.

The comments provide an explanation from a former SEC leader for why several SEC Crypto cases were abandoned after the change in presidential administration.

SEC Crypto cases included Kraken, Ripple and Coinbase

Several prominent cryptocurrency companies benefited from the change in enforcement policy.

The SEC dropped cases involving Kraken, Ripple Labs and Coinbase, among other digital-asset companies, while Uyeda was serving as acting chair.

Many of the SEC Crypto cases had been initiated during the tenure of Gary Gensler, who led the agency before the administration changed in January 2025.

Gensler had taken an aggressive enforcement approach toward the cryptocurrency industry, with the SEC bringing cases against companies over their digital-asset activities. The subsequent decisions to discontinue several of those cases represented a significant change in the agency’s enforcement direction.

The shift, however, drew criticism from opponents of the new administration’s approach to cryptocurrency regulation.

Critics argued that dropping the cases could amount to political payback for support from the crypto industry during Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. That interpretation is a criticism of the decisions, rather than an explanation offered by Uyeda for the dismissals.

Trump had campaigned on a different approach to cryptocurrency regulation and had promised to remove Gensler from his position as SEC chair “on day one” if elected.

Gensler resigned on the day Trump took office in January 2025.

Hester Peirce departure adds SEC leadership uncertainty

The future of SEC Crypto cases is also unfolding as the commission faces a shrinking membership.

Uyeda has served as an SEC commissioner since 2022 and is now part of the agency’s leadership alongside Chair Paul Atkins and Commissioner Hester Peirce.

The SEC is designed to have five commissioners, but only three seats are currently occupied.

Peirce is expected to leave the agency in November. If she departs as expected, the SEC will be left with only two commissioners, leaving three of its five seats vacant.

The administration has not announced nominations to fill those open positions, according to the supplied report.

The change could further shape how the commission approaches cryptocurrency enforcement and rulemaking. With fewer commissioners serving on the agency, decisions about existing litigation and future crypto regulations will take place against a backdrop of continued leadership changes.

For the companies involved, the dismissal of the SEC Crypto cases removes specific enforcement disputes that had been pursued under the previous administration. For the agency, Uyeda’s explanation frames the withdrawals as an effort to avoid presenting courts with legal arguments that conflicted with the SEC’s planned regulatory direction.

The contrasting interpretations surrounding the cases including Uyeda’s focus on legal credibility and critics’ claims of political considerations — underscore the broader shift in the SEC’s cryptocurrency policy following the change in administration.