SEC creates new tech enforcement unit

The Securities and Exchange Commission has created a Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit to pursue fraud tied to crypto, artificial intelligence and hacking. (sec.gov) The agency announced the unit on February 20, 2025, saying it would replace the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit. The new group is led by Laura D’Allaird and includes about 30 fraud specialists and attorneys across multiple Securities and Exchange Commission offices. (sec.gov) The unit’s brief is broader than crypto alone. The Securities and Exchange Commission said it will focus on misconduct involving blockchain and crypto assets, artificial intelligence and machine learning, social media scams, dark web activity, hacking for insider information, retail brokerage account takeovers, and false cybersecurity disclosures by public companies. (sec.gov) The agency has since folded the unit into a wider enforcement reset. In its fiscal year 2025 enforcement report on April 7, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission said the unit was launched to complement its Crypto Task Force and described the broader shift as a “course correction” toward cases involving direct investor harm. (sec.gov) That split shows how the agency is now handling crypto in two tracks. The Crypto Task Force, launched on January 21, 2025 and led by Commissioner Hester Peirce, is charged with clarifying how federal securities laws apply to crypto assets, while the enforcement unit handles fraud and cyber-related cases. (sec.gov) The Securities and Exchange Commission has also been narrowing some of its legal claims in crypto. On March 17, 2026, it issued guidance saying some activities involving airdrops, protocol mining, protocol staking and wrapping a non-security crypto asset do not fall within its jurisdiction as securities transactions. (sec.gov) The enforcement side has not disappeared. The fiscal 2025 report said the agency brought cases that included Unicoin, PGI Global and Nate, and emphasized offering frauds, market manipulation, insider trading, issuer disclosure violations and fiduciary-duty breaches by investment advisers. (sec.gov) The practical message is that the Securities and Exchange Commission is trying to separate rule-writing from case-making: one group writes the map, another goes after alleged scams. The new tech unit is where that second job now sits. (sec.gov, sec.gov)