Senator Elizabeth Warren grilled SEC Chair Paul Atkins on lax crypto enforcement during his testimony before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee on Thursday.
The Democrat said that under Atkins’ leadership, the SEC has weakened investor protections and pursued fewer enforcement actions than at any time in the past decade. She also questioned whether fraudsters and major crypto donors tied to Trump were receiving favorable treatment.
“The SEC no longer actively pursues any cases against firms with known Trump ties,” Warren said, citing public data showing SEC actions declined sharply across multiple categories in 2025.
The senator highlighted dismissals involving Kraken, Coinbase, and Gemini, each of which donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration before seeing their cases dropped.
She also pointed to Binance, whose case was dismissed after a $2 billion deal involving the USD1 stablecoin tied to the Trump family.
Warren further noted that the agency released three convicted fraudsters, Devon Archer, Carlos Watson, and Trevor Milton, after each received clemency from the president. Milton donated $1.8 million to a Trump campaign fund prior to his pardon.
In response, Atkins rejected Warren’s accusations and defended the SEC’s approach. He argued that several cases were dropped before he took office and did not reflect weakened enforcement.
“Seven of the nine crypto litigation dismissals were because of those registration issues,” Atkins said, adding that the commission has opened roughly five new crypto-related cases since the current administration took office.
The SEC chief insisted that his agency remains active in pursuing misconduct, including in the crypto sector.
The SEC’s decision to drop a number of high-profile crypto cases has drawn scrutiny from members of Congress.
During a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Wednesday, Atkins came under fire from Democratic lawmakers who accused the SEC of ignoring Trump-linked crypto scams and undermining trust in the digital asset sector.
Representative Maxine Waters also pressed Atkins over the indefinite pause of the agency’s lawsuit against Tron founder Justin Sun. The SEC chair declined to comment on Sun and other cases.