For years, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), under its former Chair Gary Gensler, waged what many still call a War on Crypto, marked by arbitrary enforcement, retroactive reinterpretation of laws, and regulatory uncertainty that is pushing innovation offshore.
In 2024 alone, the SEC brought over two dozen crypto-related enforcement actions — a record pace that outstripped prior years and rattled markets worth more than $2 trillion globally.
We at Unicoin Inc. know firsthand how destructive this uncertainty can be. Despite maintaining over six years of audited financial statements filed with the SEC and a shareholder base exceeding 4,000 investors, our company faces litigation that threatens our survival — not because of fraud or investor harm, but because of unclear rules and shifting interpretations.
Unicoin has spent more than $10 million on legal, audit, and compliance efforts, including two prior SEC investigations that concluded with no violations. Yet in December 2024, we received a Wells Notice signaling the SEC’s intent to charge us with securities violations, including for so-called “airdrop marketing” — a common industry practice used by hundreds of projects, from grassroots startups to political meme coins like $TRUMP. At that time, the SEC itself publicly denied having any anti-airdrop policy.
Faced with the threat of immediate enforcement, including a potential Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) that would have devastated our business overnight, we were forced into a “standstill” agreement with the SEC. We halted token sales and paused our plans to list on public exchanges, sacrificing growth and damaging our investors — not due to fraud, but because of fear.
When we later notified the SEC that we planned to terminate the standstill and resume normal operations, the agency retaliated by filing a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York. This time, they dropped the airdrop allegation but pivoted to other claims we consider equally specious, such as our use of the word “backed” in its ordinary sense or our description of Unicoin as “regulations compliant” — a statement grounded in the SEC’s own previous no-violation findings.
This isn’t investor protection. It’s regulatory coercion.
We believe the SEC’s pattern of “regulation by enforcement” is damaging America’s standing as a hub for innovation. U.S. blockchain startups raised less than 20% of global Web3 funding in 2024, down from over 40% just a few years earlier, as projects increasingly incorporate overseas to avoid the unpredictable U.S. regulatory climate.
Meanwhile, rival jurisdictions from the EU to the UAE and Hong Kong have adopted clear frameworks designed to attract blockchain talent and capital.
The passing of the CLARITY Act conversely offers a desperately needed solution.
It establishes clear statutory definitions for digital assets, limits agencies from retroactively criminalizing common practices, and restates due process by requiring transparent, consistent rulemaking. In short, it replaces confusion with certainty and helps ensure that the United States remains the best place in the world to launch compliant, investor-friendly blockchain projects.
Our company is ready and willing to comply with clear rules. We have proven that commitment over years of SEC reporting and oversight. What no company should be forced to do, however, is operate under a system where interpretations change without notice, agencies punish good-faith actors retroactively, and regulatory threats can destroy businesses for political points.
The CLARITY Act is ultimately not just about crypto — it is about defending the rule of law, protecting American investors, and safeguarding the future of U.S. innovation.
