US finance watchdog SEC faces potential dilemmas over Elon Musk, crypto suits

As the transition from the Biden presidency to the incoming Trump administration comes to a close, one of the country’s top financial watchdogs is in the spotlight.

In one of its last acts under US President Joe Biden, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday sued billionaire Elon Musk for failing to properly disclose shares he had amassed in Twitter before he ultimately bought the platform in 2022.

That lawsuit and other ongoing cases involving crypto present a political dilemma: Trump has criticized the agency’s approach under Biden, while Musk — tasked by the incoming president with recommending ways to cut the federal budget — has repeatedly complained about SEC overreach.

Incoming Trump-appointed chair Paul Atkins, seen as friendly to crypto and supportive of deregulation, now risks eroding the agency’s independence if he decides to drop these cases.