SEC drops investigation into Robinhood Crypto

• Robinhood says the SEC has ended the regulator’s probe into Robinhood Crypto.
• SEC issued a Wells Notice to Robinhood Crypto in May 2024.
• SEC’s closing of the Robinhood Crypto investigation comes days after the agency closed a similar probe against Opensea.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped its investigation into Robinhood’s digital assets arm.

Robinhood announced via blog post on Monday, Feb. 24 that the SEC has closed its enforcement action probe against the company.

“We applaud the staff’s decision to close this investigation with no action,” said Dan Gallagher, chief legal officer of Robinhood Markets.

The SEC’s decision to end its investigation into Robinhood comes just days after another platform, Opensea, said the regulator was ending its probe.

Both Robinhood and Opensea received ‘Wells Notices’ from the SEC in 2024.

Last week, crypto exchange Coinbase also announced the regulator had agreed to dismiss the lawsuit it had filed against the US-based company in 2023.

SEC closes Robinhood probe

In the blog post on Monday, Robinhood said it received communication from the SEC’s Enforcement Division on Friday, Feb. 21.

The letter detailed the agency’s decision to end the investigation into Robinhood Crypto, with no further action. SEC’s Wells Notice alleged potential securities laws violations by the trading platform.

However, Robinhood maintained it had not violated any securities laws and did not offer securities to users.

“This investigation never should have been opened,” Gallagher added. “Robinhood Crypto always has and will always respect federal securities laws and never allowed transactions in securities. As we explained to the SEC, any case against Robinhood Crypto would have failed. We appreciate the formal closing of this investigation, and we are happy to see a return to the rule of law and commitment to fairness at the SEC.”

The SEChas taken a more pro-crypto innovation stance since the exit of former chair Gary Gensler. President Donald Trump’s appointment of pro-crypto individuals into positions at the agency has helped this shift, including the establishment of a crypto task force by acting chair Mark Uyeda.