Trump's SEC is easing up on crypto crime at the wrong time

The Securities and Exchange Commission is scaling back its cryptocurrency enforcement unit. One investor wrote on social media, “I am a huge fan of Hawk Tuah but you took my life savings.” While rug pulls dupe multiple investors at a time, many crypto crimes target individual victims. One particularly devastating crypto fraud is known as “pig butchering” or “romance baiting.” These scams involve online criminals luring their victims into fake romances and then stealing their money by inducing them to invest in cryptocurrency. Plonski and “Sandy” traded messages about their supposedly shared interests in yoga and poetry until Plonski revealed that his business was struggling, at which point Sandy suggested he invest in crypto with her guidance. Beaufort County, S.C., which has a large senior population, reported $3.1 million in losses to crypto scams last year, including several involving bitcoin ATMs.