The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s acting enforcement director said Monday that the regulator will begin shifting its focus away from crypto enforcement in the near future. After years of strict regulation of the crypto industry over the last several years, including several high-profile investigations and lawsuits, the SEC will reportedly begin focusing on more traditional cases.

JUST IN: 🇺🇸 SEC to shift focus away from crypto enforcement under new leadership.

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“Creativity is probably not where we want to be,” Sam Waldon, the agency’s interim enforcement director, told a securities industry event on Monday. Waldon instead claimed that the SEC will instead pursue perennial areas of enforcement, including insider trading and accounting and disclosure fraud along with cases involving emerging technologies and retail investor fraud.

In addition, the SEC has also tightened up on enforcement staff’s ability to kick off formal crypto investigations without commission approval. When asked about that move on Monday, Waldon downplayed the impact of that effort. “It’s too early to tell,” he said. “There are a lot of ways to put together a process to get the commission to grant an authorization.”

SEC Continues Changing It’s Tune on Crypto

The acting enforcement director also said cases aimed at individual accountability will be the SEC’s priority. “It’s always a priority, but I do think that those are cases that are going to be received better by this commission,” he said.

In November 2024, Donald Trump was elected to return to the Oval Office as President of the United States. That decision was always poised to have massive ramifications in store for the digital asset industry. In late February and early March of this year, those began to take effect with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Not only did the SEC launch its own crypto task force, but it also ended a host of lawsuits against platforms like Kraken and Ripple Labs.

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Paul Atkins, President Donald Trump’s appointee to lead the SEC, is scheduled to appear on Capitol Hill on Thursday, likely to give more context on this decision. The move is the latest in a wave of moves that put the crypto industry in a more positive spotlight, not limiting its potential.