SEC Agrees to Drop Enforcement Suit Against Cumberland DRW, Firm Says

The suit is the latest successful a drawstring of dropped enforcement cases by the SEC.

Updated Mar 4, 2025, 8:25 p.m. UTCPublished Mar 4, 2025, 8:23 p.m. UTC

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has agreed to driblet its enforcement lawsuit against Cumberland DRW, the crypto trading limb of Chicago-based trading steadfast DRW, according to a Tuesday announcement from the company.

The SEC sued Cumberland DRW past October, accusing the steadfast of acting arsenic an unregistered securities trader and alleging it sold much than $2 cardinal successful unregistered securities, naming tokens similar Polygon (POL), Solana (SOL), Cosmos (ATOM), Algorand (ALGO) and Filecoin (FIL) arsenic a “non-exhaustive” database of tokens the bureau considered to beryllium securities.

At the clip the suit was filed, Cumberland DRW and its CEO Don Wilson pledged to combat the charges. In an interrogation with CoinDesk past October, Wilson said that his steadfast had tried and failed to registry arsenic a securities trader with the SEC, and suggested that the deficiency of clarity for crypto companies nether then-Chair Gary Gensler was a feature, not a bug of the agency’s regulatory approach.

Read more: Who’s Afraid of Gary Gensler? Not Don Wilson, the Trader Who Beat the Regulator Once Before

“This dynamic enactment the SEC successful a presumption wherever they could accidental everyone is breaking the rule, and we’re conscionable going to spell aft whoever we privation to,” Wilson told CoinDesk. “[It] reminds maine of ‘Atlas Shrugged.’ If everybody is breaking the law, they get to selectively harass whoever they privation to.”

Just 5 months later, nether the caller enactment of Acting Chair Mark Uyeda, the SEC has wholly reversed course. The agency’s determination to driblet its suit against Cumberland DRW is the latest successful a bid of abandoned lawsuits: the SEC has besides dropped its lawsuit against Coinbase, and agreed to driblet its cases against ConsenSys and Kraken. It has besides closed a multitude of probes into crypto companies, including Gemini, OpenSea, Robinhood Crypto and Yuga Labs. As with its ConsenSys and Kraken agreements, the SEC's statement with Cumberland is pending support from a bulk of the 3 commissioners presently connected the panel. The Commission voted to driblet its Coinbase lawsuit past week.

“As a steadfast profoundly committed to the principles of integrity and transparency, we look guardant to continuing our dialog with the SEC to assistance signifier a aboriginal wherever technological advancements and regulatory clarity spell manus successful hand, ensuring tha the U.S. remains astatine the forefront of planetary fiscal innovation,” Cumberland said successful its announcement.

A typical for Cumberland DRW declined to remark beyond the firm’s X post.

The SEC did not respond to CoinDesk’s petition for comment.

Cheyenne Ligon

On the quality squad astatine CoinDesk, Cheyenne focuses connected crypto regularisation and crime. Cheyenne is primitively from Houston, Texas. She studied governmental subject astatine Tulane University successful Louisiana. In December 2021, she graduated from CUNY's Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, wherever she focused connected concern and economics reporting. She has nary important crypto holdings.