The Securities and Change Fee’s enforcement chief decried rumors that the SEC’s enforcement arm was falling brief on the identical day SEC Chair Paul Atkins sidestepped questions concerning the company’s dismissal of a number of high-profile crypto-related investigations.
Throughout a speech earlier than the Los Angeles Bar Affiliation on the 56th Annual Securities Regulation Seminar on Wednesday, SEC Enforcement Division Director Margaret Ryan stated notions that the enforcement on the SEC “has been tossed to the wayside usually are not solely exaggerated however flat out fallacious.”
Nevertheless, Ryan additionally argued that she was “much more involved with the standard and influence” of their investigations than “chasing numbers.”
“And the fact is that I would not have limitless assets at my disposal,” she stated. “As such, I concentrate on utilizing the assets now we have judiciously—that’s, the place they will most successfully and pretty be used to guard buyers and our capital markets.”
Atkins named Choose Ryan as the agency’s enforcement director in September. Ryan was an active-duty U.S. Marine Corps communications officer throughout deployments to the Philippines and the Gulf Struggle. In 2006, President George W. Bush nominated her to function a choose on the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the Armed Forces.
Wealth Management named Ryan considered one of its “2026 Ten To Watch” as a consequence of her function overseeing the enforcement division amid drastic modifications on the company in the course of the Trump administration.
Because the begin of President Donald Trump’s second time period, the division (and the company as a complete) has undergone a decline in enforcement actions and workforce reductions. As of final Might, Atkins reported to Congress that the company’s workforce had declined by 15% because the begin of 2025.
In line with Cornerstone Analysis and New York College, enforcement actions in opposition to public corporations dropped 30% in FY 2025, with over 90% of these actions occurring in the course of the closing days of Joe Biden’s presidency and former SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s tenure. Extra analysis from Cornerstone indicated that cryptocurrency enforcement on the company dropped from 33 actions in 2024 to 13 in 2025, a 60% year-over-year drop. (5 of these 13 actions have been introduced earlier than Gensler departed in January 2025.) Moreover, Cornerstone discovered that financial penalties in 2025 in opposition to digital-asset market members have been $142 million, lower than 3% of 2024’s complete.
Throughout Atkins’ testimony Wednesday earlier than the U.S. Home of Representatives’ Monetary Companies Committee, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) targeted on the company’s crypto enforcement, arguing that “the reputational injury the SEC is struggling proper now could be unbelievable.”
Significantly, Lynch targeted on the dismissal of the case in opposition to Binance, alleging that terrorist teams and legal networks used the digital asset platform; after the fee dismissed the case, Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, and the company subsequently promoted stablecoins in World Liberty Monetary, a crypto enterprise associated to the Trump household.
“Statutorily, your No. 1 accountability is to guard customers and to keep up belief in our securities business. How does what you’re doing defend the buyer?” Lynch requested Atkins throughout testimony. “It boggles my thoughts that this is happening and there are not any penalties to what the president is doing.”
Atkins demurred throughout questioning, briefly stating he couldn’t touch upon the small print of a particular case, however stated the company had “a really strong enforcement effort and was bringing circumstances in opposition to fraud.”
The tense back-and-forth followed a January letter from Democratic lawmakers to Atkins, who stated the fee’s strikes to dismiss enforcement actions in opposition to distinguished crypto gamers, coupled with the Trump household’s involvement within the area, “has created the unmistakable inference of a pay-to-play scheme.” The legislators famous that crypto corporations had donated not less than $95 million to the re-election marketing campaign, with others donating closely to Trump’s inauguration.
Lawmakers urged the company to not take the identical method within the case of Justin Solar, a crypto participant accused by the SEC throughout Gensler’s tenure of manipulative buying and selling practices (and who has since invested not less than $75 million into World Liberty Monetary, whereas serving as an official advisor).
