LAS VEGAS — Now that the SEC is out of the business of regulating meme coins, investors shouldn’t expect any guidance on $TRUMP, according to Hester Peirce, one of the agency’s veteran commissioners.

The SEC said in February that it does not deem most meme coins securities under U.S. federal law. That took the crypto tokens out of its purview just weeks after President Donald Trump launched his own meme coin and saw it immediately soar in value, lifting his paper net worth by billions of dollars.

Peirce told CNBC that it’s a similar situation to when nonfungible tokens (NFTs) gained popularity in 2021. They weren’t securities but they did rise and fall in value based on investor activity in the market. Peirce said the SEC missed an opportunity to announce publicly that the agency wasn’t getting involved.

“Here was something where I saw a lot of interest in this out in the world — in meme coins — and it made sense for us to say, ‘People, if you are expecting that there’s SEC protection around these, you should not expect that,'” Peirce said in an interview at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas. “You can package almost anything into a securities transaction. But generally, it’s good for people to know, I should not be looking to the SEC for protection in this area.”

In other words, buy at your own risk.

Since President Trump took office in January, the SEC has been rolling back its enforcement in crypto, taking a more industry-friendly approach to the asset class. It’s a controversial strategy, as the president and his family deepen their involvement in crypto, profiting in a way that’s led many Democratic lawmakers to declare a clear conflict of interest.

The $TRUMP token, 80% of which is controlled by the Trump Organization and affiliated entities, has become the centerpiece of Trump’s expanding crypto empire.

Like most meme coins, the token has no underlying value. But after debuting in January, just ahead of the inauguration, $TRUMP soared to a $15 billion market cap, fueled by President Trump’s social media posts declaring, “It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!”

Within days, the token lost most of its value. Still, the project creators get a fee for every trade.

The White House previously told CNBC that Trump’s assets are held in a trust managed by his children, and there are “no conflicts of interest.”

But Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, is among a growing list of Democratic lawmakers warning that the Trump family’s crypto holdings may serve as a backdoor for foreign and corporate interests seeking access to the president.

Meanwhile, crypto billionaires once targeted by regulators like the SEC are regaining political and financial influence.

On Thursday, the SEC dropped its long-running lawsuit against Binance and founder Changpeng Zhao, bringing to an end one of the most aggressive crypto enforcement actions brought by former SEC Chair Gary Gensler.

The agency had accused Binance of misleading investors, commingling customer funds, and allowing wealthy U.S. users to evade restrictions. After pleading guilty to federal money-laundering violations in November 2023, Zhao served just four months in prison and emerged with most of his crypto empire intact. Forbes now estimates his net worth at over $67 billion.

Leading up to the dismissal, Zhao had deepened ties to Trump-affiliated networks. As Binance prepared to list USD1, a new stablecoin that funnels profits to Trump-aligned entities, Zhao disclosed that he had applied for a presidential pardon from Trump’s Justice Department. Weeks later, Binance received a $2 billion capital injection into USD1 from an Emirati state fund.

Peirce rejected the idea the SEC’s actions are politically motivated.

“We didn’t have a clear set of rules,” Peirce said, regarding the Binance case. “There were a lot of questions about how this particular activity in the crypto space intersected with our existing securities laws. So we’re trying to take a step back, use our regulatory tools to write those rules, and then enforce those rules.”

That same philosophy guided the SEC’s January decision to rescind Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, a controversial directive that had effectively blocked traditional financial institutions from offering crypto custody.

“It wasn’t even a rule,” Peirce said. “It didn’t go through the normal process. it was just a pronouncement.”

She said the policy had the effect of excluding banks and other experienced custodians from participating in the crypto space.

“It said that lots of traditional entities that would have done custody for crypto, practically speaking, could not participate,” she said.

WATCH: Trump hosts exclusive gala for meme coin holders as lawmakers raise ethics concerns

LAS VEGAS — At the world’s largest bitcoin conference this week on the Vegas Strip, the most consequential story wasn’t about bitcoin.

Stablecoins, the dollar-pegged digital tokens now driving a full-scale financial and political shift in Washington, stole the show.

The momentum behind stablecoin legislation and crypto market reform is accelerating — and it’s attracting a new kind of donor, investor, and voter. That shift took center stage at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas.

Vice President JD Vance became the first sitting U.S. vice president to address the bitcoin community on Wednesday, delivering a full-throated endorsement of crypto.

“I think it’s wrong, actually, to call this just a conference,” Vance told a crowd of 35,000. “This is a movement. And I’m proud to stand with you.”

“In this administration, we do not think that stablecoins threaten the integrity of the U.S. dollar. Quite the opposite,” said Vance. “We view them as a force multiplier of our economic might.”

Stablecoins are designed to have a stable value against a non-crypto asset, usually the U.S. dollar.

“We’re streamlining payment rails for ensuring U.S. dollar global dominance for decades to come,” Bo Hines, a White House official heading up the president’s Digital Assets Council, told CNBC on the sidelines of Bitcoin 2025.

He added that stablecoin integration into the U.S. financial system could unlock trillions of dollars in global demand for American debt.

Those ambitions hinge on the passage of the GENIUS Act, a Senate bill that would establish the first comprehensive regulatory framework for stablecoin issuers.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., told the Bitcoin 2025 crowd that the bill would move to a cloture vote on Monday after weeks of negotiations with Democrats.

“We think we have a final deal,” Lummis said. “If we can get this passed, this will be the first piece of digital asset legislation to pass the U.S. Senate.”

On the House side, Republicans are racing to match that pace.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., praised Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., for pushing a “calcified” Senate to act at record speed and said the House is determined to get both the stablecoin and broader market structure bills on President Donald Trump‘s desk before the August recess.

“The president promised this,” Emmer said. “We want it done now.”

Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wisc., who chairs the House Subcommittee on Digital Assets, is leading efforts to advance companion legislation and expects the bill to reach the Financial Services Committee by July.

“Stablecoin issuers will be purchasing U.S. Treasuries at a period of time where that is incredibly essential,” Steil told CNBC in Vegas. “It enshrines the U.S. dollar in our dominant role as the world’s reserve currency.”

Tether — the largest stablecoin issuer in the world — now ranks among the top buyers of U.S. Treasuries globally.

Steil dismissed Democratic efforts to propose an amendment banning government officials from profiting off stablecoin ventures. The Trump family has ties to World Liberty Financial and its newly-launched stablecoin USD1.

Kraken CEO Dave Ripley, who has been advising lawmakers behind the scenes, called the legislation essential to bringing financial institutions — including consumer brokers and major banks — into the digital asset ecosystem.

But he cautioned that key provisions, including whether yield on stablecoins can be shared with users and how government officials may participate in the market, are still being debated.

“Crypto is all about individuals,” he said. “Let’s bring the value to them.”

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said commodity trading firms will be “the biggest driver” of stablecoin adoption in the next five years. He is already preparing for the next wave of competition as mainstream financial players begin launching their own digital dollars on the blockchain.

Ardoino, whose company controls more than 60% of the stablecoin market, emphasized that traditional financial firms entering the stablecoin space will be constrained by their reliance on high-fee customers.

“All the traditional financial firms will create stablecoins that will be offered to their existing customers,” he told CNBC.

According to The Wall Street Journal, major banks including JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citi are in early talks to issue a unified digital dollar to compete with Tether.

Tether, by contrast, is targeting the global majority excluded from banking.

“Many of our competitors say, ‘Oh, Tether is serving this niche of the unbanked,'” he said. “Half of the population of the world should not be called a niche.”

That global reach is one reason policymakers in Washington are moving fast.

Under Trump’s newly appointed regulatory team, momentum has shifted decisively.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, which has been long viewed as the industry’s top adversary, has begun dismantling its enforcement-first framework, clearing the way for greater institutional participation in crypto.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said the change was long overdue.

“For many years now, I’ve been complaining about the fact that the commission has not taken proactive steps to provide clarity, and now finally, we’re at a place where we can do that,” she said.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, who has been meeting privately with the SEC, says tokenization — not just of dollars, but of public and private markets — is now within reach, even without new legislation.

“We’ve actually been engaging with the SEC crypto task force as well as the administration,” he told CNBC. “And it’s our belief, actually, that we don’t even need congressional action to make tokenization real. The SEC can just do it.”

WATCH: Vice President Vance pitches stablecoins as new pillar of U.S. economic diplomacy