Trump meets with Crypto.com CEO as firm drops SEC suit
US President-elect Donald Trump met with Crypto.com chief executive officer (CEO) Kris Marszalek the same day the company dropped its lawsuit against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Marszalek flew down to meet Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago to discuss policies potentially affecting the crypto industry. Crypto.com CEO and Trump held discussions surrounding the US President-elect’s proposal to launch a national Bitcoin reserve. In addition, they also discussed appointments in Trump’s administration related to the crypto industry.
The meeting coincided with Singapore-based crypto trading platform Crypto.com dropping its lawsuit against the US SEC. A court filing shows the crypto exchange has voluntarily dismissed its suit against the SEC and its commissioners with prejudice.
A company’s spokesperson said the firm withdrew the lawsuit owing to its “intent to work with the incoming administration on a regulatory framework for the industry.”
Crypto.com filed a lawsuit against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The platform alleged that the agency is overstepping its jurisdiction by regulating the crypto industry.
This comes after the trading platform received a ‘Wells notice’ from the top US markets regulator, signalling the SEC’s intention to take enforcement against the company on grounds that tokens traded on its platform qualified as securities. Marszalek said in October that Crypto.com would be filing a suit against the SEC “to protect the future of crypto.”
A Wells notice is a formal announcement that signals that the SEC is planning to bring an enforcement action against a company.
Lawsuit allegations
Crypto.com alleged in the lawsuit that the US SEC is expanding its jurisdiction beyond legal limits and is continuing with an unauthorised and unfair regulatory campaign.
Crypto.com in a statement, said, “Our lawsuit contends that the SEC has unilaterally expanded its jurisdiction beyond statutory limits and separately that the SEC has established an unlawful rule that trades in nearly all crypto assets are securities transactions.”
The crypto trading platform’s CEO Kris Marszalek said on X (formerly Twitter), “This unprecedented action by our company against a federal agency is a warranted response to the SEC’s regulation by enforcement regime which has hurt more than 50 million American crypto holders.”
In another post, he said, “The SEC’s unauthorized overreach and unlawful rulemaking regarding crypto must stop.”
The Singapore-based platform has filed the case in Texas’ Tyler federal court, which names SEC Chair Gary Gensler and four more commissioners as defendants. Moreover, the company has filed a separate petition with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the SEC. This petition seeks to confirm exclusive regulation by the CFTC of certain crypto derivative products.
