On Tuesday the SEC announced that it has renamed the Division of Enforcement’s Cyber Unit to the “Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit,” and that it was nearly doubling its staff to 50 positions. As chronicled here and here, the SEC has asserted that when crypto is used to raise capital, it qualifies as a “security” under Federal law and is thus subject to the SEC’s regulation.
As Tuesday’s release states, the unit has “brought more than 80 enforcement actions related to fraudulent and unregistered crypto asset offerings and platforms, resulting in monetary relief totaling more than $2 billion.” This will take it up a notch.