type: timeline_event The Securities and Exchange Commission agreed to dismiss its pending case against Consensys, the blockchain technology company behind the MetaMask cryptocurrency wallet, on February 20, 2025. The SEC had filed suit against Consensys in June 2024, alleging that MetaMask's staking and swapping features constituted unregistered broker-dealer activity and that certain tokens offered through the platform were unregistered securities. The dismissal came after Consensys had donated $100,000 to President Trump's inaugural fund, part of an estimated $13 million in total cryptocurrency industry contributions to the inaugural committee.
Accountable US, a government accountability organization, published analysis documenting that the Trump administration dropped SEC lawsuits and probes against five crypto firms that had donated to the inauguration—including Consensys, Solana, and Uniswap—among numerous industry gifts. The pattern of enforcement decisions appeared to track with inauguration donations, raising pay-to-play concerns. The SEC under Trump-appointed Chair Paul Atkins reversed the Biden-era enforcement approach that had subjected cryptocurrency platforms to securities law scrutiny, treating most cryptocurrencies and related services as outside the SEC's jurisdiction.
The Consensys case dismissal was one of dozens of crypto enforcement actions the Trump-era SEC declined to pursue. The agency dropped cases against Coinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, Ripple, and other major cryptocurrency exchanges, reversing years of enforcement that had established legal precedent about which cryptocurrency activities fell within securities law. Critics including Democratic lawmakers and investor protection advocates argued the pattern demonstrated that cryptocurrency companies had effectively purchased regulatory immunity through Trump inaugural donations and subsequent investments in Trump family cryptocurrency ventures. The House Judiciary Democrats' November 2025 report on Trump's crypto empire documented these enforcement reversals as central evidence of the administration's pay-to-play regulatory approach.