The chief of the SEC is headlining an event sponsored by a crypto firm at war with it

2 hours ago

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins is simply a marquee talker astatine a argumentation acme backed by Unicoin, whose CEO says the bureau main is being duped by his staff.

Feb 25, 2026, 2:00 p.m.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Atkins is simply a apical talker astatine the Digital Chamber's DC Blockchain Summit adjacent month, and the event's main sponsor — Unicoin — is successful a ineligible combat with the agency, claiming the SEC's president is being misled into perpetuating a bequest warfare connected crypto.

The main enforcement for Unicoin, which is the summit's "platinum" sponsor, says his institution is not allowed to talk with the SEC's leaders owed to the agency's ongoing ineligible enactment against the crypto platform. In May past year, the SEC sued the institution and its executives, including CEO Alexander Konanykhin, accusing them of raising $100 cardinal for tokens that weren't backed by existent property successful the mode the steadfast represented.

Konanykhin said that the ineligible clash is pursued by rogue bureau enforcers (the "henchmen" of erstwhile SEC Chair Gary Gensler) that person misled existent SEC Chairman Paul Atkins. (The lawsuit whitethorn person begun nether Gensler's tenure, but the resulting suit was filed past twelvemonth nether then-Acting Chair Mark Uyeda.)

"We are prohibited from talking to Atkins oregon different commissioners, truthful they person nary mode of knowing that they person been defrauded by 'dirty cops,' holdovers from Gensler's War connected Crypto," Konanykhin wrote successful a connection to CoinDesk.

Unicoin executives whitethorn not beryllium capable to talk with Atkins, but the institution is helping wage for the lawsuit astatine which Atkins and Commissioner Hester Peirce are the first 2 speakers highlighted connected the summit's website, successful a database that besides includes Konanykhin.

When asked astir the confluence of Unicoin and its bureau adversary astatine the upcoming summit, the organizers responded with a statement, saying, "Companies travel to the Digital Chamber's DC Summit due to the fact that it is an accidental to amended and physique bridges."

An SEC spokesperson declined to remark connected the situation.

Konanykhin's institution has further sought to amended the SEC with a run involving trucks circulating astir the halfway of Washington and past the agency, decorated with pointed messages that included the sentiment, "The War connected Crypto is NOT over."

The CEO has been threading a needle successful his crisp disapproval of the SEC. He praised Atkins for "steadily repairing the harm connected the crypto manufacture inflicted by his predecessor," but helium insisted that the agency's enforcement unit is sabotaging Atkins by maintaining Gensler's ineligible combat with the integer assets sector, contempt the information the SEC dismissed oregon delayed the different large crypto enforcement cases pursued nether Gensler.

Also, the existent securities-fraud charges against Unicoin were made past year, erstwhile Republican Commissioner Uyeda was the stand-in chairman. The suit was approved by a committee that past included 2 Republicans and a Democrat, with nary dissenting statements issued. But Konanykhin says the enforcement lawyers got the support rubber-stamped, arguing that "rejection of a unit proposal is the objection alternatively than the rule."

The argumentation summit, among the astir salient yearly crypto events successful Washington, features a code of conduct that calls for "a harmless and welcoming situation that fosters unfastened dialog and the escaped look of ideas." While Konanykhin mightiness privation to archer Atkins that his enforcement unit "crudely fabricated absurd charges against Unicoin and its executives," the ineligible constraints against him won't licence that unfastened dialogue.

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