#DigitalAssetBill #SaylorBTCPurchase $BTC $XRP
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requests to dismiss a case for promoting cryptocurrency against YouTuber Ian Balina
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeks to dismiss the unregistered securities lawsuit against cryptocurrency YouTuber Ian Balina in the agency's latest step to retreat from enforcing cryptocurrency law.
The SEC has filed a request to dismiss another lawsuit related to cryptocurrency, this time an unregistered securities sales case against cryptocurrency influencer and YouTuber Ian Balina.
The SEC stated in a joint agreement with Balina on May 1 before a federal court in Austin that it "believes that dismissing this case is appropriate," citing the work of the agency's cryptocurrency task force.
The agency did not provide a reason for dismissing its case, but stated that its decision "does not necessarily reflect the commission's position on any other case."
He said to Palina in a Quintelgraph interview in March that the Securities and Exchange Commission informed him that it would recommend that the court dismiss the case, claiming that the agency's actions were based on a shift in the agency's priorities.
Balina said: "It is clear that the new administration is pro-cryptocurrency." The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has seen a change in leadership during the presidency of Donald Trump, who appointed Hester Peirce, a former cryptocurrency advocate, as its chair.
The joint agreement stated that dismissing the lawsuit would also preserve court resources "without costs or fees to either party."
Balina is the CEO of Token Metrics, a cryptocurrency influencer with 140,000 followers on X, and YouTube accused by the SEC of improperly promoting cryptocurrency projects, especially during the initial coin offering (ICO) boom around 2017.
The SEC filed a lawsuit against Balina in 2022, alleging that he conducted an unregistered securities offering for Sparkster (SPRK) tokens when he formed an investment group on Telegram in 2018.
The SEC claimed that investors residing in the United States participated in Balina's private investment group using Ethereum.
Ethereum
$1,831
, which was verified through a network of nodes "that are denser in the United States than in any other country."
Related: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission abandons investigation into PayPal's stablecoin
The court sided with the SEC, and in May 2024, ruled that SPRK was an investment contract under U.S. securities laws, as investors pooled money in a joint venture in hopes of making a profit from the efforts of others.
Excerpt from the joint agreement. Source: PACER
The shift in cryptocurrency policy
This move is the latest in a long list of legal actions related to cryptocurrency that the SEC has dropped under the Trump administration's favorable stance toward the industry.
Over the past month, several cases have been dropped, and multiple investigations against cryptocurrency companies have been abandoned, including those against Coinbase, Ripple, Kraken, OpenSea, and PayPal's stablecoin.
