With Democrats projected at 75% to secure the U.S. House of Representatives majority in 2026 on prediction platform Kalshi, Representative Maxine Waters’ recent critique of Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins’ cryptocurrency policies may gain momentum.
Though Congress is on winter break, the senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee urged Monday for Atkins to testify before the committee, where she expects him to explain the termination of crucial enforcement actions concerning the digital assets industry.
“The SEC has dropped or postponed significant enforcement actions against several crypto companies and individuals credibly accused of substantial violations of securities laws, including Coinbase, Binance, and Justin Sun,” Waters expressed in a letter sent to the committee’s Republican chairman, Representative French Hill. “The committee has not examined the SEC’s reasoning for withdrawing these cases, nor how the agency plans to prevent fraud and manipulation in markets affecting millions of retail investors.”
Waters claimed that some companies relieved from SEC cases publicized their terminations before the commission actually voted on them, and she asserted that Atkins’ office “played an unusually proactive role in concluding these cases.”Read More: Most Influential: Paul Atkins
The SEC did not provide an immediate response to a request for comment from CoinDesk.
Following President Donald Trump’s administration’s onset, a shift in leadership at the agency — culminating in Atkins’ confirmation as chairman — resulted in the regulator abandoning a lengthy list of legal confrontations with the crypto sector. Nearly all pending cases were dismissed, and it withdrew from several ongoing legal battles.
Trump has focused on revitalizing the U.S. crypto industry, and Atkins has adopted that mission as the SEC’s highest priority, despite the agency being established as an independent federal regulator not meant to operate under direct Presidential oversight.
Waters, who has been both an active negotiator regarding crypto legislation and a critic of the industry, stated that Atkins “positions the agency’s agenda as a tool of the administration.” She noted that many policy changes have been implemented through staff statements rather than formal regulations. This has frequently been the case for the crypto industry, which has readily accepted many of these statements as clarifying the agency’s stance in the absence of clear digital asset laws. “This method undermines the SEC’s legal duties under the Administrative Procedure Act, bypasses the essential role of public input in identifying issues, and conceals from Congress and the public exactly what interests are shaping SEC decisions, preventing us from evaluating the motives behind those influencing SEC policy,” Waters stated, requesting that Atkins appear before the House committee.
Read More: U.S. SEC chief warns that oversight needs to be limited in harnessing crypto’s potential to snoop
