SEC opens Cyber & Emerging Tech unit
The SEC has launched a new Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit focused on blockchain and AI investor protection, which the industry described as an enforcement course correction. The unit was announced in social reporting and framed as aimed at addressing risks tied to these fast‑moving technologies (x.com/BitcoinNews/status/2043304374475305364).
The Securities and Exchange Commission created a Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit on February 20, 2025, to police fraud tied to artificial intelligence, hacking, and blockchain. (sec.gov) The new unit, called the Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit, replaced the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit and started with about 30 fraud specialists and attorneys across multiple Securities and Exchange Commission offices. Laura D’Allaird was named to lead it. (sec.gov) Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda said the unit would target misconduct involving artificial intelligence and machine learning, social media scams, dark web activity, brokerage account takeovers, blockchain fraud, and false cybersecurity disclosures by public companies. (sec.gov) The shift split crypto policy into two tracks. On January 21, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission also launched a separate Crypto Task Force led by Commissioner Hester Peirce to draft a clearer regulatory framework for digital assets. (sec.gov) That structure moved one part of the agency toward rule-writing and another toward fraud cases. The Crypto Task Force says it is focused on drawing “clear regulatory lines,” while the enforcement unit is aimed at retail-investor protection and cyber misconduct. (sec.gov, sec.gov) Law firms that advise financial companies described the change as a narrower enforcement posture than the previous crypto unit. Crowell & Moring said the new setup appeared to move away from non-fraud crypto cases such as registration and technical securities-law violations. (crowell.com) WilmerHale said the February 2025 announcement pointed to “fraud- and retail-focused” priorities under the new leadership, rather than the broader crypto enforcement approach used in earlier years. (wilmerhale.com) The older Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit had been created in 2017 and became one of the agency’s main vehicles for digital-asset cases during the Biden years. The 2025 replacement kept cyber enforcement in place but widened the brief to newer tools such as artificial intelligence and online impersonation. (sec.gov, clarkhill.com) By April 2026, the unit stood as one of the clearest signs of how the Securities and Exchange Commission had redrawn its crypto map: policy work in one office, fraud enforcement in another. (sec.gov, sec.gov)
