- SEC ends investigation into Robinhood Crypto with no enforcement action
- Robinhood took a cautious approach by delisting tokens and stopping uncompliant services
- New SEC administration aims for clearer regulations and less combative enforcement
This Monday, U.S.-based broker Robinhood announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has officially ended its investigations against the cryptocurrency section of the company, Robinhood Crypto (RHC).
The SEC informed Robinhood in a letter that the Commission would be ending the investigation against the firm.
Back in May 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a “wells notice” against Robinhood. The notice informed Robinhood that it was under investigation to assert whether the broker had failed to comply with U.S. securities laws.
The investigation focused on whether Robinhood had failed to register certain cryptocurrency assets—viewed as securities by the last SEC administration—to its cryptocurrency trading platform.
At the time, Robinhood took a different approach to facing the SEC. While firms like Ripple and Coinbase chose to dive head-first into a full-on legal battle with the Commission—Robinhood took a more cautious strategy by opting to delist tokens and stop services that could be uncompliant.
The voluntary decision to drop investigations is yet another sign that the new SEC—currently under the administration of Acting Chair Mark Uyeda—will be a less combative commission, avoiding regulating crypto firms via enforcement.
Instead, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is taking a more “Democratic” approach. Currently, the Commission is working on developing clear regulations for crypto firms, via the “Crypto Taskforce” headlined by Hester Peirce. This week, the task force welcomed Strategy CEO Michael Saylor and heard his thoughts regarding how should the U.S. regulate cryptocurrencies.
Just last week, the SEC gave up on a long-running lawsuit against Coinbase. The lawsuit in question argued that the exchange offered unregistered securities without the supervision of the Commission.
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