As Democrats gain in odds to take U.S. House, Waters bashes SEC chair on crypto

Maxine Waters, the apical Democrat who whitethorn pb the House Financial Services Committee again if Democrats prevail, has a crypto bony to prime with SEC's Atkins.

Dec 29, 2025, 9:19 p.m.

With Democrats favored astatine 75% to triumph the U.S. House of Representatives bulk successful 2026 connected prediction marketplace Kalshi, Representative Maxine Waters’ caller disapproval of Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins’ crypto policies could summation much energy.

Though Congress remains connected its wintertime break, the ranking Democrat connected the House Financial Services Committee called Monday for Atkins to attest earlier the committee, wherever she wants him to reply for the dismissal of important integer assets manufacture enforcement actions.

"The SEC has terminated oregon stayed large enforcement actions against aggregate crypto companies and individuals that had been credibly accused of large violations of our securities laws, including Coinbase, Binance, and Justin Sun," Waters wrote successful a missive sent to the panel's Republican chairman, Representative French Hill. "The committee has not scrutinized the SEC’s rationale for abandoning these matters, nor however the bureau intends to deter fraud and manipulation successful markets touching millions of retail investors."

Waters argued that immoderate of the companies freed from SEC cases announced the terminations earlier the committee really voted connected them, and she contended that Atkins' bureau "took an unusually progressive relation successful negotiating an extremity to these cases."Read More: Most Influential: Paul Atkins

The SEC didn't instantly respond to a petition for remark from CoinDesk.

After the commencement of President Donald Trump's administration, a enactment alteration astatine the bureau — and the eventual confirmation of Atkins arsenic its president — led to the regulator abandoning a lengthy list of ineligible battles it had waged with the crypto industry. Almost each of its pending cases were dropped, and it backed retired of respective ongoing tribunal disputes.

Trump has made it his ngo to boost the U.S. crypto industry, and Atkins has declared that aforesaid ngo the apical precedence astatine the SEC, which was established arsenic an autarkic national regulator not meant to run nether the nonstop absorption of the White House.

Waters, who has astatine times been an progressive negotiator connected crypto authorities portion besides sharing manufacture criticism, said Atkins "frames the agency’s docket arsenic an instrumentality of the administration." She besides noted its galore argumentation shifts person been executed done unit statements alternatively than ceremonial rules. That's routinely been the lawsuit for the crypto industry, which has enthusiastically embraced galore of these statements arsenic clarifying the agency's presumption successful the lack of wide integer assets laws. "This attack flouts the SEC’s ineligible obligations nether the Administrative Procedure Act, excludes the captious relation nationalist remark provides successful identifying issues, and hides from legislature and nationalist presumption precisely what interests are influencing SEC decision-making, truthful that we cannot measurement the motives of those parties molding SEC policy," said Waters, who requested that Atkins travel to attest earlier the House panel.

Read More: U.S. SEC main warns watchdogs request to beryllium constricted successful tapping crypto's powerfulness to snoop

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