As the likelihood of Democrats winning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives rises, Waters criticizes the SEC chairman's crypto policies.

PANews reported on December 30th that, according to CoinDesk, Democrats are favored to win a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026 with a 75% chance of victory on the prediction market Kalshi. Against this backdrop, Representative Maxine Waters' new criticism of SEC Chairman Paul Atkins' cryptocurrency policies could generate even greater repercussions. Although Congress is still in winter recess, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee called on Atkins to testify before the committee on Monday, hoping he would explain the termination of major enforcement actions in the digital asset industry.

In a letter to Representative French Hill, the Republican chairman of the committee, Waters wrote, “The SEC has terminated or suspended significant enforcement actions against several crypto companies and individuals accused of serious violations of securities laws, including Coinbase, Binance, and Justin Sun. The Committee has neither examined the reasons the SEC dropped these cases nor how the agency intends to curb fraud and manipulation in markets involving millions of retail investors.” Waters argued that some companies that withdrew from SEC cases announced the termination of their cases before the committee actually voted, and she also insisted that Atkins’ office “played an unusually positive role in negotiating the conclusion of these cases.” The SEC did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.

According to previous reports, the U.S. SEC has dropped 60% of the crypto cases inherited from the Biden era, most of which involve business dealings with the Trump family .