SEC files to drop crypto promo case against YouTuber Ian Balina

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed to drop another of its crypto lawsuits, this time its unregistered securities sales case against crypto influencer and YouTuber Ian Balina. 

The SEC said in a May 1 joint stipulation with Balina to an Austin federal court that it “believes the dismissal of this case is appropriate,” citing the work of the agency’s Crypto Task Force.

The agency didn’t give a reason for wanting to dismiss its case, but said its decision “does not necessarily reflect the Commission’s position on any other case.”

Balina told Cointelegraph in March that the SEC had informed him it would recommend the court dismiss the case and claimed the agency’s actions were based on a shift in the agency’s priorities.

“Obviously, the new administration is pro-crypto,” Balina said. The SEC has seen a change in leadership under US President Donald Trump, who appointed former crypto lobbyist Paul Atkins to chair the agency.

The joint stipulation argued a dismissal would also conserve the court’s resources “without costs or fees to either party.”

Balina is the CEO of Token Metrics, a crypto influencer with 140,000 followers on X, and a YouTuber who the SEC accused of improperly promoting crypto projects, particularly during the initial coin offering (ICO) boom circa 2017.

The SEC sued Balina in 2022, alleging that he conducted an unregistered securities offering of Sparkster (SPRK) tokens when he formed an investing pool on Telegram in 2018.

The SEC claimed that US-based investors participated in Balina’s investing pool, using Ether (ETH), which was validated by a network of nodes “which are clustered more densely in the United States than in any other country.”

Related: SEC drops investigation into PayPal’s stablecoin

The court sided with the SEC and, in May 2024, ruled that SPRK was an investment contract under US securities laws, where investors pooled money into a common enterprise expecting profits due to the efforts of others.

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Shift in crypto policy

The move is the latest in a long list of crypto-related court actions that the SEC has quashed under the Trump administration’s favorable stance toward the industry. 

Over the past month, it has dropped several cases and abandoned multiple investigations against crypto firms, including against Coinbase, Ripple, Kraken, Opensea, and PayPal’s stablecoin. 

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