Author: jk; Editor: Hao Fangzhou

With Trump's coming to power, he once led the United States' anti-revolution The senior regulatory authorities of cryptocurrency are now facing a full liquidation. Major financial regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are undergoing large-scale personnel adjustments and shifts. It can be seen that Washington's regulatory attitude is undergoing fundamental changes. Next, Odaily Planet Daily will take you to see what these changes and liquidation have specifically brought to the industry.

SEC: All the Gary Gensler teams left, pro-crypto-encrypted personnel entered, and the law enforcement procedures changed

SEC, the new official takes office for three fires

At the SEC headquarters at 100 F Street, Washington, DC, the atmosphere is quietly changing. With Trump taking office, Gary Gensler resigned the same day, and the pro-crypto-based Mark Uyeda became acting chairman, temporarily acting on the role of chairman before the new chairman Paul Atkins was nominated and confirmed. This building with beautiful glass curtain walls is no longer a public enemy of the crypto industry, but has become a truly friendly regulatory body.

For Mark Uyeda's personal profile and pro-crypto stance, you can read this article "How long will it take to expose the new leadership team of US crypto regulating supervision from the beginning to implementation? 》(https://www.odaily.news/post/5201353)

On February 5, local time in the United States, two people familiar with the matter revealed that the US SEC is currently It is required that its lawyers obtain senior approval before formally launching the investigation. The new requirement stipulates that law enforcement officers must obtain permission from appointed committee members before they can issue subpoenas, request documents and compulsory certificates. There are currently three members: Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda, Hester Peirce and Caroline Crenshaw. During the previous administration, the SEC only needed to obtain approval from two law enforcement supervisors to formally initiate the investigation.Law enforcement officers can continue informal investigations without the approval of the Commissioner, including sending information requests.

At the same time, I believe many readers already know that SEC Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda has set up a new cryptocurrency working group, which is a crypto-friendly committee member with "crypto-mom" The ultimate goal of "Hester Pierce, known as "is to provide regulatory clarity and propose a clear cryptocurrency regulatory framework (similar to the EU's MiCA). This news follows Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda appointed Landon Zinda, director of former crypto advocacy group Coin Center, to join the committee as his legal counsel and senior advisor to the cryptocurrency task force.

Encryption in SEC The SEC support is very obvious on the website of the Currency Working Group, and even provides crypto people with email addresses to contact the SEC directly. Source: SEC official website

Hester Peirce said: "The Cryptocurrency Working Group is considering recommending the SEC to take action to provide temporary forward-looking and retroactive relief for token issuance. (Compared to previous retrospective enforcement by the SEC), in which the issuing entity or other entity willing to assume responsibility provides certain specific information and remains updated and agrees not to challenge the SEC in cases of allegation of fraud in connection with the purchase and sale of assets. ”

Liquidation is coming? Anti-cryptographers are marginalized

Almost all senior legal officials working under Gary Gensler, including law enforcement The staff from the department and the General Counsel’s Office have left the office, and it can be speculated that his entire team has left. Previously, SEC's chief economist Jessica Wachter, chief accountant Paul Munter and general counsel Megan Barbero have also left the company.

What should people do if they don’t leave?

The SEC has reportedly reappointed Jorge Tenreiro, former deputy director of crypto assets and networking departments, to his Computer Systems Management (IT) department. Tenreiro has worked at the SEC for more than 11 years, and according to his LinkedIn information, he started as an executive attorney before heading the agency’s cryptocurrency law enforcement from October 2022 to November 2024.

Tenreiro has been involved in several SEC enforcement cases against cryptocurrency companies, such as lawsuits against Ripple and Coinbase. The SEC has undergone a major shift in position since President Trump took office, thus reducing the size of its crypto law enforcement.

FDIC: Regulatory hostility disappears completely, and crypto banking services may return

What is FDIC?

FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Company) is an independent agency in the United States responsible for providing insurance for bank deposits, ensuring that depositors can receive up to 250,000 yuan in compensation when the bank goes bankrupt Dollar. The FDIC regularly reviews the bank's assets and liabilities status, assesses risks, prevents misoperation, and takes corrective measures when problems are found, and may even close banks that are seriously violated or insolvent. In addition, the FDIC is responsible for taking over and liquidation when the bank goes bankrupt, protecting the interests of depositors and maintaining the security and stability of the financial system. If a bank goes bankrupt, the FDIC usually arranges another bank to take over the deposit or directly pay the depositor, making the banking system safer and more reliable.

Simply put, FDIC is the US bank insurance, ensuring the safety of consumers' deposits in the bank. Previously, when Silicon Valley Bank went bankrupt, the FDIC was responsible for the aftermath and follow-up arrangements.

Why is banking and insurance related to the crypto industry?

Because of the regulatory function of FDIC, FDIC was actually not a good name for the crypto industry; FDIC restricted the crypto industry from reaching banks and caused complaints from the entire crypto industry.

Imagine if you open itIf you set up a crypto company or project, you cannot open an account in any major U.S. banking service you should enjoy. You will not be able to enjoy at all. And that's Operation Choke Point 2.0 (translated as "banning operation" or "bottleneck operation" 2.0), a ban on crypto projects from banking services, and FDIC is the main regulatory implementer. We'll talk about this soon.

This is not groundless. Anchorage Digital CEO Nathan McCauley said at a U.S. Senate “debanization” hearing that although Anchorage Digital is a crypto bank with a federal license, it has been denied services by banks, resulting in business damage and even layoffs of 20%. McCauley pointed out that between 2021 and 2023, US regulators have gradually pressured banks to stay away from the crypto industry, including OCC, FDIC, SEC, the Federal Reserve and other joint releases, making banks generally unwilling to cooperate with crypto companies, resulting in many crypto companies not being able to obtain. Basic banking services were even forced to shut down.

Consensys CEO Joseph Lubin said that the company had twice been tried by U.S. authorities to cut off access to the financial system and was a victim of Operation Chokepoint 2.0. In the latest incident, a large U.S. bank (reportedly Wells Fargo) eventually closed its Consensys account after being under pressure from regulators. Lubin revealed that the bank initially tried to delay execution and expressed support for Consensys, but ultimately could not resist the pressure. In addition, Lubin himself was targeted during this liquidation operation.

How is the difference between today's FDIC?

And with Trump taking office, the FDIC has also changed.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) recently announced that it is actively reevaluating the regulatory approaches to cryptocurrency-related activities, including withdrawing and replacing the Financial Institution Letter (FIL) 16 -2022), providing banking institutions with compliance paths so that they can participate in cryptocurrency and blockchain-related activities while complying with the principles of security and robustness. The FDIC plans to work with the Digital Asset Markets Working Group established by Trump’s executive order to optimize the regulatory framework.

FDIC Acting Chairman Travis Hill, who criticized FDIC's position as a stifle that prevented banks from exploring blockchain and digital assets, said: "I have been criticizing FDIC's attitude towards crypto assets and blockchain in the past. As I said last March, the FDIC's practices have led to a general belief that if an institution is interested in anything related to blockchain or distributed ledger technology, the institution cannot do business.'" After taking up the role, Hill initiated a review of all regulatory communications related to crypto banks, saying: “After becoming the acting chairman, I directed employees to conduct a comprehensive review of all regulatory communications with banks trying to provide crypto-related products or services.”

Operation Choke Point 2.0: It is about to end, and participants may be held accountable and liquidated

< p label="Second-level title" classname="customstyle_text" style="text-align: left;">How powerful is Operation Choke Point 2.0?

We have just mentioned that Operation Choke Point 2.0 (translated as "banning operation" or "bottleneck operation" 2.0) is a ban on crypto projects that enjoy banks Serviced. In fact, the scale of this action may be far beyond readers' imagination.

Blockworks describes this way: If FTX is a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon rainforest, then "Operation Choke Point 2.0" is now pouring into the cryptocurrency industry in the United States. rainstorm.

This action was made by Biden White House, Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) , Federal Deposit InsUrance Corporation (FDIC) and Department of Justice (DOJ, U.S. Department of Justice), together with "influential people in Congress", are committed to depriving the cryptocurrency industry of fiat currency channels to completely kill This industry.

Senators Roger Marshall, Elizabeth Warren and John Kennedy put pressure on Silvergate, and Signature Bank significantly cut crypto-related deposits in December 2023. In January 2024, the FDIC, OCC and the Federal Reserve jointly stated that banks were “strongly discouraged” in support of cryptocurrency operations, followed by Metropolitan Commercial Bank’s complete shutdown of cryptocurrency operations.

At the same time, crypto companies trying to master their own fiat currency channels also encountered resistance, and Federal Reserve officially rejected Custodia (formerly Avanti) joining the Federal Reserve system at the end of January. Application, the application has been delayed for more than two years. Although Anchorage became the first trust bank to be qualified for approval in 2021, Paxos and Protego have not been approved. Listing cryptocurrency banks as “high risk” has four major negative effects, including FDIC raising insurance premiums, Federal Reserve lowers capital ratios (limiting overdraft capacity), restricted business activities, and lower regulatory review scores (affecting mergers and Acquisition capability) further exacerbates the isolation between banks and crypto industry.

Moreover, most of the above behaviors are traceless. That is to say, cryptocurrency companies are not only unable to litigate, but may even find evidence at all. Many people who promoted this matter hid behind the screen and put pressure on them secretly.

All this has been reversed since Trump took office.

What is the attitude of the US regulator today?

The US Congress first held a hearing on Operation Choke Point 2.0, inviting people in the crypto industry to describe how they were "bottled". U.S. Representative Meuser said at the hearing that Biden's Operation Choke Point 2.0 is implemented by regulators and is specifically targeted and debanked in the digital asset ecosystem.

"FDIC pressures banks to refuse to be digital through private dialogue and formal regulatory threats Asset companies, their employees, and even their customers provide services.

This is a serious abuse of power that not only stifles innovation, but also directly harms consumers, Keeping them from getting new, potentially beneficial financial products…

Just yesterday, Acting Chairman of Federal Deposit Insurance Company Travis Hill publicly revealed Biden’s Operation Choke Point activity, resulting in debanization of cryptocurrency businesses across the country… The FDIC has promised to correct this in the future and I will continue to monitor its rectification progress and explore legislative solutions to ensure that such incidents do not happen again .

"The free market can only prosper when innovation is fully developed. The role of regulators is to protect our financial system – but this should not come at the expense of the development of legitimate businesses such as energy companies and cryptocurrency companies. ”

The official hearing of the U.S. Congress acknowledges the existence of Operation Choke Point 2.0. Source: YouTube

Readers can take a closer look at the differences in today's official qualitative status.

At the same time, U.S. federal judge Ana C. Reyes made severe criticism of FDIC's behavior in Coinbase's case against Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The lawsuit stems from Coinbase's attempt to obtain documents from the FDIC sending a "suspension letter" to banks to limit cryptocurrency-related activities, which is evidence of Operation Choke Point 2.0. Judge Reyes noted, the FDIC failed to provide a large number of documents related to Coinbase's previous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and may have destroyed some case information.

Ana C. Reyes directly questioned the FDIC at the hearing: "Can you explain why the FOIA request is interpreted in such a narrow way? Its content is very Obviously, it is not as (limitedly) understood as you do. "Excerpts of some of the conversation are as follows:

Andrew Dober (FDIC lawyer): Yes, my Excellency Judge, I can—

The Court: No, you can answer my question directly .

Andrew Dober: Regarding these issues, I do have a statement, Your Excellency Judge. The FDIC begs the court to suspend the case for three weeks—

The Court: No, no. I want you to answer my question now.

Andrew Dober: Because of leadership changes—

The Court: I want you now Answer my question.

Andrew Dober: Yes, Your Excellency Judge. Can you repeat these questions?

The Court: Who has adopted such a narrow and illogical interpretation of FOIA requests?

Andrew Dober: Your Excellency Judge, I think this is how I understood it at that time—

The Court: I didn't ask you how you understood it, but who did it. This interpretation is almost ridiculously narrow. Who is it?

According to The Block, VBCapital partner Scott Johnsson said: "See a link."It is shocking that a state judge severely denounces lawyers from a federal agency in such a way. ”

Judge Reyes not only plans to summon FDIC staff’s work permit in mid-February, but also warns that if FDIC does not cooperate, “life will become very, very unpleasant for the FDIC” (FDIC's days will become very, very unpleasant). She further questioned whether the FDIC had taken legally required document retention measures and pointed out that Andrew Dober could face "serious sanctions."

And liquidation is coming. U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis said that the U.S. Senate Banking Committee today found the first solid evidence of Operation Chokepoint 2.0. She said, "Don't worry, the Digital Assets Subcommittee The parties involved will be found and held accountable. ”

CFTC: Reorganize law enforcement departments

On February 5, 2025, Caroline Pham, acting chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), announced that the agency has reorganized law enforcement to focus more on combating fraud and to stop replacing regulatory functions with law enforcement actions. The reform aims to optimize resource allocation, improve law enforcement efficiency, and ensure market integrity.

Under the leadership of former chairman Rostin Behnam, CFTC law enforcement has set up several Working Groups are responsible for the supervision of insider trading, cybersecurity and emerging technologies, and environmental fraud. After this reorganization, the CFTC has streamlined the number of working groups in law enforcement from multiple to two, namely the Complex Fraud Working Group and The Working Group on Retail Fraud and General Law Enforcement.

The Working Group on Complex Fraud will be responsible for handling complex fraud and market manipulation cases involving all asset classes, ranging from investigations to The entire process of litigation. The Retail Fraud and General Enforcement Working Group focuses on combating fraud in the retail market and other general law enforcement matters.

Acting Chairman Pham pointed out in his statement , this adjustment aims to stop "law enforcement supervision" (Regulation by Enforcement) and improve organizational efficiency, enabling CFTC to combat market fraud and misconduct more accurately than impose excessive compliance burdens. The CFTC announcement further emphasized that the new structure will more effectively prevent fraud, manipulation and market abuse, ensure market fairness, and at the same time strengthen supervision and governance of law enforcement actions, prevent override of supervision, and improve compliance standards for law enforcement consistency and due process.

Why is this statement important? The first thing to know is that CFTC has been involved in cases such as Binance and Coinbase, and is one of the more active US crypto-regulators. Because of the commodity attributes of cryptocurrencies (such as gas fees), the CFTC believes that the crypto industry should be under its supervision. At the same time, law enforcement and supervision were a common strategy used by the SEC before, namely, a strategy that "you can do whatever you want, but if something goes wrong, you will be fined."

However, this strategy often does not provide any regulatory clarity: a typical example is Coinbase, which was quickly approved by the SEC when Coinbase initially made an IPO, and There is no definition of any attributes for cryptocurrencies, but a few years later, a lawsuit was filed against Coinbase on the grounds that cryptocurrencies are an unregistered securities, and Coinbase provides a trading platform for unregistered securities. This capricious regulatory attitude has brought great uncertainty to the US crypto industry, which is why the CFTC has made it clear that banning law enforcement supervision is a huge benefit to the crypto industry.

David Sacks: The New Encryption Tsar's Action

David Sacks, as the White House's head of cryptocurrency and AI affairs, emphasized at a recent press conference to promote the United States to become a leader in the digital asset field and called for a clear regulatory framework as soon as possible. He announced that the Senate and the House will work together to formulate cryptocurrency legislation to address the uncertainty faced by the industry for a long time. Senator Bill Hagerty proposed the GENIUS stablecoin bill, hoping to provide legal support to this market by regulating the stablecoin issuance procedures. Sacks believes that stablecoins can not only consolidate the dominance of the US dollar in the international market, but may also bring trillions of dollars in US Treasury bond demand, thereby reducing long-term interest rates and enhancing the stability of the US financial system.

In the press conference, Senator Tim Scott, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, proposed the goal of getting the stablecoin and digital assets bill passed through Congress within 100 days and sent to the president for signature. Member French Hill, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said The new version of the Digital Assets Act will be revised on the basis of FIT 21 to make up for previous loopholes, such as the practical feasibility of the SEC in 60 days. The Senate also plans to coordinate FIT 21 to ensure that the bill version can Finally, the president signed into law.

Sacks also emphasized the negative impact of debanking on the crypto industry, according to CNBC's report and interview. He pointed out that Staying in the U.S. will be more conducive to consumer protection because regulators can more effectively monitor market activity when these businesses are located in the U.S. He believes that the Bahamas regulatory loopholes have led to the world's largest crypto fraud case (referring to FTX), and the United States should avoid repeating the same mistakes.

At the first press conference of David Sacks (first right), he stood with the Senators and Representatives. Source: Bloomberg

Sacks confirmed that Bitcoin Reserve will be included in the research topic of the White House Digital Assets Task Force and may include seized assets. However, he said the Sovereign Wealth Fund The concept is different from Bitcoin reserves, and will be specifically led by incoming Treasury Secretary Howard Lutnick. Trump is exploring the potential role of Bitcoin in the fiscal system, but the specific plan is still in the discussion stage.

David Sacks demonstrates the attitude of US regulation in one sentence: "The crypto war is over. I look forward to working with you to create a golden age of digital assets together. ”