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Enforcement actions at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dropped by nearly 22% between fiscal years 2024 and 2025, which the agency explained as a necessary “course correction” from the Biden administration.
In total, the commission filed 456 enforcement actions in fiscal year 2025, according to its annual report on enforcement activity. This includes 303 standalone actions and 69 “follow-on” administrative proceedings.
In comparison, the agency filed 583 actions in fiscal year 2024 (a 26% decline from the prior fiscal year), including 431 standalone actions and 93 follow-on administrative proceedings.
SEC statements discussing the report focus on critiques of the agency’s enforcement approach during former Chair Gary Gensler’s tenure, with the commission claiming that “resources have been misapplied in prior years to pursue media headlines and run up numbers.”
The commission noted that under Gensler, the agency brought several enforcement actions in the run-up to last year’s presidential inauguration.
Additionally, the agency argued that previous crypto firm registration-related cases and numerous “books-and-records” cases (such as the agency’s off-channel communication enforcement proceedings) produced “no investor benefit or protection, and demonstrate what the current Commission views as a misrepresentation of the federal securities laws.”
“Over the past year, the Commission has put a stop to regulation by enforcement and recentered its enforcement program on the Commission’s core mission by prioritizing cases that provide meaningful investor protection and strengthen market integrity,” Chair Paul Atkins said, in a statement.
The agency also noted its “necessary course correction” in its approach to overseeing enforcement of securities violations involving crypto assets, detailing the launch of the Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit (which dissolved an enforcement unit dedicated solely to crypto assets) and a Crypto Task Force.
Analyses from Cornerstone Research and New York University already found that enforcement actions against public companies dropped 30% in fiscal year 2025, with over 90% of those actions occurring during the closing days of the Biden administration.
Additionally, Cornerstone found that crypto enforcement at the agency dropped 60% year-over-year in 2025 (with five of the 13 actions brought before Gensler left in January 2025). Monetary penalties in 2025 against digital-asset market participants were $142 million, less than 3% of 2024’s total, according to Cornerstone.
The “course correction” in crypto enforcement has come amid increased scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers.
In a letter to Atkins earlier this year, legislators argued that the commission’s moves to dismiss enforcement actions against prominent crypto players, coupled with the Trump family’s increasing industry involvement, have “created the unmistakable inference of a pay-to-play scheme.”
Rep. Steven Lynch (D.-Mass) told Atkins when he testified during a Congressional oversight hearing in January that the “reputational damage the SEC is suffering right now is unbelievable.”
These changes have come amid leadership shakeups in the enforcement division.
Last month, Judge Margaret “Meg” Ryan resigned from her position as enforcement director less than one year after being appointed to the role. Deputy Director Sam Waldon stepped in to serve as the division’s interim director while the agency seeks a permanent successor.
“As I recently said, I did not seek the role of Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement,” Ryan said in a statement. “Rather, this role found me. And for that, I am grateful. I am confident that the foundation I helped to shape—working together with Chairman Atkins—will continue to serve investors and the markets well.”
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