5-3-2025 – Cumberland DRW, the prominent investment management and institutional trading specialist, has announced it is finalising an agreement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to abandon legal proceedings against the firm.
The SEC initiated litigation against Cumberland DRW last October, contending that the company had functioned as an unregistered securities dealer since 2018, managing cryptocurrency assets exceeding £2 billion. According to regulatory claims, five digital tokens traded by Cumberland—namely Polygon, Solana, Cosmos, Algorand, and Filecoin—should be classified as securities.
“Today, we have signed a joint statement with the SEC to dismiss its case against Cumberland DRW,” the organisation declared in a 4 March communiqué. Regulatory authorities had originally pursued a permanent injunction alongside the surrender of purported illicit gains, pre-judgement interest accruals, and civil monetary sanctions.
The dismissal arrangement, initially negotiated with SEC officials on 20 February, currently awaits definitive authorisation from the commission’s leadership. Cumberland expressed optimism about continued engagement with regulators, stating, “We look forward to continuing our dialogue with the SEC to help shape a future where technological advancements and regulatory clarity go hand in hand.”
This development represents the latest in a series of withdrawn legal challenges by the SEC in the cryptocurrency domain. The regulatory body previously abandoned proceedings against several significant industry participants, including crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken, as well as blockchain enterprise Consensys.
In parallel developments, the SEC has terminated investigations into NFT-related ventures Yuga Labs—creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection—and OpenSea, alongside crypto exchange Gemini and Uniswap Labs. Notably, the commission’s inquiry into Yuga Labs concluded with the determination that non-fungible tokens do not constitute securities under prevailing regulatory frameworks.
