It’s a new era for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under President Donald Trump as the agency voluntarily dismissed its appeal on Feb. 19 in a crypto rulemaking case. While the SEC’s voluntary dismissal of its own effort to reverse a court ruling blocking a contentious broker-dealer rule that would have given the agency jurisdiction over decentralized crypto protocols represented a huge win for the digital assets industry, the regulator is yet to dismiss its appeal in the high-profile Ripple lawsuit. Fox Business Journalist Eleanor Terrett has delved into the potential reason why the agency has not yet ended the XRP-centered legal battle. SEC Is Prioritizing Cases With Imminent Deadlines In a Feb. 19 X post citing anonymous legal sources, Eleanor Terrett revealed that the Securities and Exchange Commission has been pausing enforcement cases with looming court deadlines, which is partly why the regulator has not yet abandoned its appeal in the Ripple case. Notably, Ripple requested a due date of Apr. 16 for its opening brief in the cross-appeal against the SEC. The securities watchdog submitted its own opening brief on Jan. 15 — just five days before Trump’s inauguration and the exit of former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. Following Gensler’s departure, the new SEC leadership has signaled the commission will adopt a more collaborative approach to policing the crypto market. Acting SEC Chair Mark Uyeda has already launched a crypto-focused task force for formulating clear rules, helmed by pro-crypto commissioner Hester Peirce. As ZyCrypto reported earlier, President Trump is pushing forward with his vision to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the world,” stating on Wednesday that he had effectively ended the Biden administration’s animosity toward Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, the SEC’s progress on enforcement actions unleashed during Gensler’s regime has stalled, including cases against Binance and Coinbase . Fox Business suggested that the SEC might be waiting for Trump’s pick, Paul Atkins , to assume office. “It’s possible SEC leadership is expecting @realDonaldTrump’s pick for chair Paul Atkins to be on his way to getting confirmed by that time,” Terrett posited. “In the interim, the crypto task force, Congress, and the Presidential Working Group on Digital Assets are presumably working to fill the regulatory gaps that led to these lawsuits being brought in the first place.” Besides easing its stance on lawsuits, the SEC, under Uyeda’s leadership, is acknowledging exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on altcoins such as Ripple-linked XR P.
