The Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was questioned on the issue of "relaxing cryptocurrency regulation".

PANews reported on February 12th, citing CoinDesk, that SEC Chairman Paul Atkins was questioned before the House Financial Services Committee regarding the issue of relaxed cryptocurrency regulation, including the SEC's withdrawal of enforcement cases against Justin Sun, founder of the Tron Foundation, and others. Democratic Representative Maxine Waters pointed out that since the Trump administration changed leadership last year, the SEC has dropped almost all previous enforcement cases against the crypto industry, including the 2023 charges against Justin Sun and his company concerning TRX token price manipulation. Waters also mentioned Justin Sun's recent connections with the Trump family's World Liberty Financial Inc., questioning whether the SEC's enforcement decisions were influenced by political connections. Atkins stated that he could not discuss individual cases but was willing to provide confidential briefings to members "within the bounds of the rules." When asked whether the SEC had ever protected investors at the expense of Trump's business interests, Atkins responded that he "could not comment on the Trump family's actions."

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers focused on Atkins' commitment to pushing forward with regulatory rules for the crypto industry. Atkins stated that the SEC is working with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to develop rules that clarify the regulatory boundaries under the CLARITY Act. The CFTC recently revised its "no-action letter," clarifying that National Trust Bank can issue payment stablecoins and use them as eligible tokenized collateral. Furthermore, the Credit Union Administration of the United States released a draft rule that day regarding institutions applying to become stablecoin issuers, marking the first regulatory step in implementing the GENIUS Act.