On Friday, President-Elect Donald Trump formally announced his appointment of Jay Clayton, the former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY).
“Jay is going to be a strong fighter for the truth as we make America great again,” Trump said on social media.
The office of the Southern District of New York has prosecuted a number of prominent crypto cases, including the high-profile fraud and conspiracy charges against Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX crypto exchange which collapsed in 2022.
“We brought a lot of big cases in the wake of the crypto winter,” said Scott Hartman, the co-chief of the securities and commodities task force at the SDNY, while speaking at a conference at the Practising Law Institute in New York this week. "You won't see as much crypto stuff coming out of at least the SDNY in the future," Hartman said, pointing out that the office was reducing the resources allocated to prosecuting similar crypto crimes. This move coincides with Trump’s campaign promise to reduce the regulatory burden on the cryptocurrency sector, which claims it has faced intense scrutiny under the current SEC chair, Gary Gensler.
“There were a lot of important fraud cases to bring there, but we know our regulatory partners are very active in this space,” Hartman added.
On the campaign trail, Trump pitched himself as a crypto president bent on replacing Gensler with a more pro-crypto SEC leader – reflecting his commitment to removing restrictions “choking” the digital asset industry. The crypto industry raucously approved, claiming that innovation at home has been imperiled by the strict regulatory cudgel hanging over the sector.
As Trump prepares to officially begin his second term on January 20, he has already started unveiling a series of key appointments that signal the direction his administration plans to take when addressing the current crypto regulatory landscape. While Gensler’s successor has not been announced yet, there are hints that the current SEC chair might resign before being axed by Trump. On Thursday, Gensler announced he was “proud to serve” the SEC and highlighted the crypto sector’s dubious business practices, underscoring the importance of the SEC’s work – including its unpopular lawsuits.
“This is a field in which over the years there has been significant investor harm,” Gensler said. “Aside from speculative investing and possible use for illicit activities, the vast majority of crypto assets have yet to prove out sustainable use cases.”
