The Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) campaign against the crypto industry has cost American companies more than $400 million in legal defense costs alone. That's enough to fund multiple startups or research initiatives that could have advanced U.S. financial technology leadership. Instead, these resources have been spent fending off an unprecedented regulatory assault that voters have now clearly rejected.
The numbers tell a stark story. Under Chair Gary Gensler's leadership, the SEC has devoted an excessive amount of its time and resources to targeting crypto – an industry that represents, by the Commission’s own estimate, just 0.25% of global markets. This disproportionate focus has yielded little besides costly courtroom defeats and damaged institutional credibility. The Commission's setback in the Ripple case and other significant reversals demonstrate the flaws in its strategy of regulation-by-enforcement.
