House Holds Hearing on How to Restore Accountability, Due Process and Public Confidence in SEC Enforcement

SDNY Chief Promises ‘Big Carrot’ for Businesses That Cooperate With Criminal Probes

In addition to cooperation, Peikin asked Clayton for his views on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which spurred colorful criticism by Clayton.
Clayton said he “hate[s]” how the powerful statute has been used by U.S. prosecutors.

We “never really go after individuals, just hold up companies for money based on stuff we wouldn’t prosecute at home, and by doing that, we’ve ceded many hot spots to more corrupt groups,” Clayton said. “Because the application of the FCPA—the way we do it—I think corruption in many places around the world has increased.”

Clayton further stated that the FCPA was intended to crack down on powerful companies “essentially buying foreign governments, not buying the guy on the dock with facilitation payments.”

“That’s hard. That’s actual crime,” Clayton said, referring to the crime of buying a foreign government. “It messes with foreign relations, it does all sorts of terrible things and that we should pursue that to our heart’s content. But, you know, the low-level stuff? Who are we to go do that?”

SEC Enforcement Chief Warns Congress Of ‘Regulation By Enforcement,’ Urges Guardrails

A former senior Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement official told lawmakers Tuesday that the agency has “lost its way” on fairness in recent years and must adopt formal internal safeguards to prevent enforcement actions from substituting for rulemaking.

Testifying before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Peter Chan, now a partner at the global law firm Baker McKenzie, said the SEC increasingly sets policy through settlements and litigation pressure rather than through clear, prospective rules.

“Regulation by enforcement denies fair notice,” Chan told lawmakers. “It creates de facto rules through enforcement actions without transparency, predictability, or due process.”

The hearing, titled “A New Day at the SEC: Restoring Accountability, Due Process and Public Confidence,” focused on whether the agency’s enforcement practices have drifted beyond their investor-protection mission. […]

Chan pointed to the SEC’s off-channel communications initiative as a prime example. The effort resulted in more than $2 billion in penalties against over 100 firms, often without evidence of bad faith.

Bitcoin is still about $70,000 too high

… Sure, sure, bitcoin might have had a couple of dozen substantial crashes, a few hundred crypto companies might have gone bust, untold numbers of people might have lost their life savings, but every time bitcoin falls, it has always bounced back. Those who can afford it manage to cling on (it’s the people who can’t who are wiped out), and the cognitive muscle memory they acquire on each rebound leads them to believe their hallowed crypto coin is going to live forever.

Allow me to put this sensitively: it is not. Bitcoiners’ excessive confidence — or more precisely the confidence they project, crucial in keeping the whole scheme going — has always been unwarranted, irresponsible and foolhardy. Ever since its creation, bitcoin has been on a journey that will end, splattered on the ground.

This week, that ground came into view, fast….

What Happened When One Man Tried to Organize a Pro-Billionaire Rally

Derik Kauffman’s biggest challenge in organizing a march in support of California’s billionaires: convincing the public it’s not a joke.

The March For Billionaires, held Saturday in San Francisco, was a response to a controversial proposal to impose a new tax on the state’s wealthiest residents. In the days since he announced it—anonymously—Kauffman has been accused of having a “peasant feudal lord mindset” and satirizing the city’s posture toward the tech industry.

An X account he created to promote the event quickly inspired a parody account on Bluesky: The March for Trillionaires.

“There were more negative reactions than I expected,” said Kauffman, adding that it helped get the word out.

Tether’s gold stash tops $23 billion as buying outpaces nation states, Jefferies says

Tether, the crypto firm behind the world’s most popular stablecoin, continued its gold hoarding over the past month, ranking within the top 30 global owners of the metal and surpassing several sovereign nations, according to a Sunday report from Wall Street investment bank Jefferies.

The stablecoin issuer’s gold reserves rose to an estimated 148 tonnes by Jan. 31, valued at roughly $23 billion, after buying about 26 tonnes in the last quarter of 2025 and adding another 6 tonnes in January, Jefferies analysts said.
Jefferies estimates show Tether’s quarterly gold buying exceeded that of most individual central banks, trailing only Poland and Brazil during that period.

At current levels, Tether’s holdings exceed those of countries such as Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, South Korea and Greece, placing the crypto firm among the top 30 holders of bullion worldwide and one of the largest non-sovereign buyers, the analysts said.