A prominent US law firm is reportedly planning to reduce its focus on crypto matters as Donald Trump returns to the White House.
On Thursday, Trump announced on Truth Social that he planned to nominate Jay Clayton as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Clayton headed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) during Trump’s previous term and has recently made crypto-friendly comments.
Scott Hartman, co-chief of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force in the Southern District, said at a conference this week that the office won’t ignore crypto, but also that not as many prosecutors will focus on the sector, Reuters reports.
“We brought a lot of big cases in the aftermath of the crypto winter – there were a lot of high-profile fraud cases – but we know our regulatory partners are very active in this area.”
Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, has prosecuted numerous crypto cases in recent years, including Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX.
After expressing skepticism about Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto during his previous presidential term, Trump spent the past year on the campaign trail promising to protect and grow the digital asset sector.
At campaign events in recent months, he pledged to fire current SEC Chairman Gary Gensler on his first day in office and end policies that prevent crypto investors and companies from using digital assets.
He also said the US would stop selling its hoard of seized Bitcoin on the open market and instead strategically hold it as an investment.
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