Rep. Maxine Waters Seeks SEC Oversight Hearing on Crypto Cases
U.S. Representative Maxine Waters has requested an oversight hearing with Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Paul Atkins, citing concerns over the regulator’s handling of cryptocurrency enforcement and nine additional oversight issues, according to a letter sent Sunday.
In her letter to House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill, Waters said a hearing is overdue and pointed to what she described as “questionable policy changes” at the SEC. “Chair Gensler testified before the Committee twice during his first year. Despite having a clear obligation to oversee the SEC, the Committee has not held a single hearing with Chairman Atkins, despite the agency’s rapid, significant, and questionable policy shifts during the Trump Administration,” she wrote.
Waters listed 10 areas she believes should be addressed, including the dismissal of significant crypto enforcement actions, questions around the SEC’s independence and potential politicization, and a perceived weakening of market surveillance.
She asserted that the SEC “has terminated or stayed major enforcement actions against multiple crypto companies and individuals that had been credibly accused of major violations of our securities laws, including Coinbase, Binance, and Justin Sun,” adding: “In some of these cases, the defendants had announced that the SEC had terminated enforcement actions even before the Commission had taken the actual vote to do so.”
Waters said the committee should examine how the agency “intends to deter fraud and manipulation.”
Atkins, nominated by President Donald Trump, succeeded former chair Gary Gensler in April. During his tenure, the SEC has adopted a more accommodative posture toward digital assets, with certain lawsuits and inquiries paused, eased requirements for crypto exchange-traded funds, and a proactive stance on crypto rulemaking under Project Crypto.
Waters seeks to curb crypto ‘fraud’
Waters has repeatedly criticized aspects of the crypto sector and the Republican Party’s approach to its regulation. In October, she expressed outrage at the pardoning of Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao. In mid-July, she authored an opinion piece warning that proposed frameworks including the CLARITY Act and the GENIUS Act would “open the floodgates to massive fraud and financial ruin.”
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