The unregistered securities offering lawsuit against crypto YouTuber Ian balina is being considered for dismissal by the SEC, marking the agency’s most recent step in scaling back its crypto enforcement actions.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has moved to drop another crypto lawsuit, this time involving its case against crypto influencer and YouTuber Ian Balina over alleged unregistered securities sales.
On May 1, the SEC and Balina filed a joint stipulation with an Austin federal court, stating that dismissing the case was appropriate and citing the work of the agency’s Crypto Task Force.
The agency did not provide a reason for wanting to dismiss the case but stated that the decision “does not necessarily reflect the Commission’s position on any other case.”
In March, Balina said the SEC had told him it intended to recommend dismissing the case and claimed that a shift in the agency’s priorities influenced the decision.
Balina stated, “Obviously, the new administration is pro-crypto.” A change in leadership at the SEC has occurred under US President Donald Trump, who appointed former crypto lobbyist Paul Atkins as the agency’s chair.
The joint stipulation argued that dismissing the case would also conserve the court’s resources, with no costs or fees imposed on either party.
The SEC accused Balina—CEO of Token Metrics, crypto influencer with 140,000 followers on X, and YouTuber—of improperly promoting crypto projects, particularly during the 2017 initial coin offering (ICO) boom.
In 2022, the SEC sued Balina, accusing him of conducting an unregistered securities offering by creating an investing pool for Sparkster (SPRK) tokens on Telegram in 2018.
The SEC claimed that U.S.-based investors joined Balina’s investing pool using Ether (ETH), which a network of nodes—more densely clustered in the United States than in any other country—validated.
Crypto Policy Undergoes Strategic Shift
The court supported the SEC’s position, ruling in May 2024 that SPRK qualified as an investment contract under U.S. securities laws, since investors pooled funds into a common enterprise expecting profits from others’ efforts.
The latest move continues a series of crypto-related court actions that officials have quashed, following the Trump administration’s supportive stance toward the industry.
Over the past month, authorities have dropped several cases and abandoned multiple investigations into crypto firms, including Coinbase, Ripple, Kraken, Opensea, and PayPal’s stablecoin.
