According to the latest report from ReutersThe U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan will now devote fewer resources to policing cryptocurrency crimes after securing a number of major convictions, including that of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, a senior prosecutor said Friday.
Fewer prosecutors to work on crypto cases
Scott Hartman, co-chief of the securities and commodities task force in the Southern District of New York (SDNY), issued his assessment a day after President Donald Trump’s former US SEC chairman Jay Clayton was set to become US attorney there .
Hartman said the office would not ignore crypto cases, but that there are fewer prosecutors working on them than when digital asset prices collapsed in 2022, a period known as the “crypto winter.”
“You won’t see as much crypto material coming out of the SDNY in the future,” Hartman said at a conference organized by the Practicing Law Institute in New York. “We brought a lot of big cases in the wake of the crypto winter — there were a lot of high-profile fraud cases that had to be brought there — but we know that our regulatory partners are very active in this area,” Hartman said, referring to agencies like the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
This shift mainly comes as other regulatory bodies, such as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), are actively monitoring crypto regulations.
Gensler’s hostile approach
Clayton served as SEC director from 2017 to 2021. Although he handled some crypto-related matters, he was less aggressive in overseeing the industry, which was smaller at the time, than current SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. The current administration’s approach under Gensler has been largely criticized by the crypto community for its hostile approach to crypto assets.
Many cryptocurrency executives supported Trump’s campaign, believing Gensler’s crackdown went too far. Gensler’s departure from the SEC chairman position is largely awaited by the crypto industry, as a Trump victory has raised expectations of more favorable regulations for cryptocurrencies. His departure could signal a seismic shift in the regulatory environment not just in the US, but around the world.