The SEC versus crypto: a chronicle of the war that shaped the market

The relationship between the SEC and crypto is the industry's main legal drama. Its key episodes are worth knowing: they explain why the market twitches at the regulator's every word.

Milestones

• The DAO Report (2017): the SEC first declared that tokens can be securities - the Howey test officially arrived in crypto.
• The Ripple case (2020-2023): a lawsuit over selling unregistered securities. The court split it: institutional sales of XRP - a violation, exchange sales - not. A partial but crucial win for the industry.
• The enforcement era (2023): a wave of lawsuits against the largest exchanges, classifying dozens of tokens as securities - the peak of "regulation by lawsuit" instead of rules.
• The turn (2024-2025): spot ETF approvals, a change of SEC leadership, several lawsuits withdrawn - the pendulum swung toward normalization.

Why reading this right matters

Regulatory news moves more than the specific token: every precedent reprices legal risk for the entire asset class. A lawsuit means years of process, not a verdict; a withdrawn lawsuit is not absolution. The market systematically overreacts to headlines and underestimates the length of procedures - the coolest heads live off that gap. We keep the regulatory chronicle in the section.