December has brought a range of activity at the SEC and beyond. From the SEC issuing its first enforcement press release in several months, filing multiple actions including one for alleged accounting and disclosure fraud, to US prosecutors announcing criminal action on a matter that first hit the news just in September. But a pair of regulatory releases by the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets (TM) are also due attention. Our rundown of those releases follows in an area we are keeping watch.
Crypto / Digital Assets
The SEC’s New Regulatory Agenda = 180 Degree Turn from Prior Administration
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today released its much-anticipated “Spring” regulatory agenda. The agenda removes more than a dozen items from the Fall 2024 agenda and adds nearly double that to the Spring 2025 agenda. The two proposed rules that remain from Fall 2024 had their titles (and substance) changed (e.g., the “Rule 144 Holding Period” became the “Rule 144 Safe Harbor” and “Foreign Issuer Reporting Modernization” became “Foreign Private Issuer Eligibility”).
The SEC’s Security-Based Swap “Substituted Compliance” Regime
Foreign security-based swap dealers (SBSDs) and major security-based swap participants (SBSPs) may satisfy specified U.S. rules by complying with comparable home-country requirements—but only if the SEC has issued an order expressly allowing it. But substituted compliance does not mean free pass.
Because many conditions are cross-referenced (e.g., capital, recordkeeping, and reporting), a single breach of a substituted foreign requirement can simultaneously violate multiple Exchange Act provisions—and instantly revoke the ability to rely on substituted compliance.
SEC Speaks 2025: A New Day at the SEC
On May 19 and 20, 2025, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) Chairman Paul S. Atkins and other senior SEC officials convened in Washington, D.C. for the annual SEC Speaks conference. The Commission looked back at the last four years and outlined its strategic priorities going forward under President Trump’s second administration. The post below focuses on the SEC’s changing approach to enforcement.