SEC freezes all pending administrative hearings until further notice amid US government shutdown

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has frozen all pending administrative hearings until further notice due to the ongoing US government shutdown.

The regulator had been prolifically clamping down on the cryptocurrency space before the New Year, hitting ICOs Paragon and Airfox with penalties as well as EtherDelta founder Zachary Coburn.

But now it seems as though their clean-up of the cryptocurrency space has been halted, with all pending hearings being frozen.

According to securities lawyer Jake Chervinsky, “due to the shutdown, the SEC issued an order yesterday freezing all pending administrative proceedings until further notice. Nearly everything at the SEC is on hold now. Same story at the CFTC. We’ve already had to cancel several meetings with government lawyers. DC is quiet.”

The decision to halt operations has caused confusion in regards to the upcoming decision on a Bitcoin ETF, which is scheduled for February 27th.

The SEC has already delayed the decision on VanEck/SolidX’s ETF application, meaning that the February 27th date is the final deadline for the regulator.

Chervinsky states that in spite of the government shutdown, the deadline is “imposed by statute and cannot be delayed further.”

Coin Rivet reached out to the SEC to clarify whether the shutdown will affect the ongoing cryptocurrency crackdown, but the Commission are yet to respond.

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