Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters Slams SEC Chair's Crypto Policy, Calls for Hearing

BlockBeats News, December 30th: The prediction market Kalshi shows that the Democratic Party has about a 75% probability of winning a majority of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026. Against this backdrop, Maxine Waters, a senior Democratic member of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, has raised sharper criticism of the cryptocurrency asset regulation policies of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul Atkins.

In a letter to Committee Republican Chair French Hill, Waters stated that the SEC has terminated or suspended several key enforcement actions against the cryptocurrency industry involving entities such as Coinbase, Binance, and Justin Sun. She pointed out that the Committee has not yet conducted a thorough review of the reasons for the SEC's abandonment of these cases and how to prevent fraud and manipulation in the market targeting a large number of retail investors in the future.

Waters also mentioned that some companies involved in the cases publicly announced the termination of the cases before a formal SEC vote, questioning Atkins' team's "unusually proactive" role in the case settlements. She believes that the SEC's recent policy shifts have mainly been advanced through staff statements rather than formal rulemaking, which may circumvent Administrative Procedure Act requirements, weaken public comment solicitation, and congressional oversight. Therefore, she has requested Atkins to attend a hearing to provide explanations. Reports indicate that since the Trump administration took office and completed leadership changes, the SEC has abandoned several lawsuits against the cryptocurrency industry. Atkins has also repeatedly stated publicly that he will support the development of the U.S. cryptocurrency industry as a regulatory focus, a stance that has become a continued focus of attention and questioning from the Democratic Party.