SEC transfers top crypto litigator Jorge Tenreiro to IT department

Jorge Tenreiro, the SEC’s top crypto hitman, just got pulled off the legal department. He’s now stuck in the agency’s IT department, buried somewhere under server maintenance and software updates. The transfer happened last week, right as the SEC scrambles to make peace with the same crypto companies it spent years dragging through courtrooms, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

Tenreiro was the guy behind some of the SEC’s biggest legal battles, including lawsuits that could have defined how much power the commission had over the crypto industry. His reassignment comes after months of political pressure from pro-crypto forces. Trump’s White House is in complete support of this after forcing former chairman Gary Gensler to resign on Jan. 20.

SEC’s crypto wars take a new direction

The commission, now under Republican control, didn’t explain why they pulled Tenreiro off crypto litigation, but the signs are obvious. Companies like Coinbase and Binance pumped millions into political action committees to help elect lawmakers who understand the industry—or at least won’t sue it to death.

With Trump’s executive order last month calling for a new crypto-friendly regulatory framework and the assignment of Mark Uyeda as acting chairman, the SEC is changing.

Uyeda announced a new task force just yesterday to rethink how the commission deals with crypto, as Cryptopolitan reported. The task force is led by Hester Peirce, a longtime ally of industry nicknamed ‘Crypto Mom.’

Tenreiro first gained attention during the initial Trump administration, when the SEC, under then-Chairman Jay Clayton, cracked down on the wild boom of initial coin offerings (ICOs). Clayton declared most tokens as securities, and Tenreiro was the guy making sure crypto companies felt the weight of that decision.

His most recent high-profile win came in September 2024, when the SEC reached a settlement with Mango Markets. The decentralized trading platform had raised $70 million by selling unregistered tokens. Tenreiro said that labeling the project a “DAO” didn’t mean it could dodge securities laws.

The case ended with Mango agreeing to a $700,000 fine, the destruction of its MNGO tokens, and delisting requests from exchanges. Mango shut down entirely by January 2025, unable to recover from the legal and financial blows.

But not every case worked out so smoothly. In October 2024, Tenreiro’s team launched an appeal against Ripple Labs after Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP token sales on exchanges didn’t count as investment contracts. Ripple’s executives, Brad Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen, had reason to celebrate—briefly. 

Tenreiro’s appeal wanted to expand securities law to cover retail sales of XRP, but it triggered a storm of backlash. Crypto supporters called it regulatory overreach, and Ripple loyalists hit back by filing a bar complaint against Tenreiro just two days later.

Tenreiro’s involvement in the SEC’s 2019 case against Veritaseum, a blockchain-based financial technology company, also came back to haunt him. VERI token holders accused him of misrepresenting their tokens as securities and causing financial harm through “wrongful prosecution.”

They pointed to the SEC’s embarrassing misstep in the Debt Box case, where the commission admitted to fabricating evidence and had to pay $1.8 million in penalties. Tenreiro’s aggressive tactics had gone too far.

SEC task force pivots away from lawsuits

Hester Peirce isn’t wasting time dismantling what’s left of the SEC’s enforcement-first approach. “The commission refused to use regulatory tools at its disposal,” she wrote in a statement on Tuesday, ripping apart the litigation-heavy strategy pushed by Gensler and executed by Tenreiro.

Peirce said the SEC is now weighing a temporary amnesty program for crypto issuers. Companies that provide basic disclosures to investors could be allowed to trade freely on exchanges without the constant threat of SEC intervention.

Uyeda’s decision to withdraw controversial accounting guidance further shows how quickly things are changing. The guidance, which made it nearly impossible for banks to offer custody services for digital assets, was a major pain point for crypto companies. Natasha Guinan, the senior SEC lawyer responsible for that policy, was also reassigned, though her new role is still unknown.

Cryptopolitan Academy: How to Write a Web3 Resume That Lands Interviews - FREE Cheat Sheet