PANews reported on May 20 that according to CryptoSlate, Katherine Reilly, the new acting inspector general of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has listed cryptocurrency fraud as the primary regulatory priority. According to the October 2024 report of her office, cryptocurrency fraud accounted for 18% of the total complaints from SEC investors, and retail investors lost $3.96 billion in 2023. Reilly replaced the retiring Deborah Jeffrey during the transition period. During her previous tenure as deputy inspector general, she led the investigation into the theft of the SEC's official Twitter account in 2024 (causing the price of Bitcoin to fluctuate by $1,000 in an instant). She emphasized that the SEC faces the dual challenges of insufficient resources and a shortage of professional talent - the current regulations prohibiting employees from holding digital assets have hindered the recruitment of technical talents.

Although the new SEC Chairman Paul Atkins holds more than $6 million in cryptocurrencies, Reilly's audit focus is still on fraud monitoring and network security upgrades rather than policy issues such as asset classification. His team will continue to evaluate the SEC's operational efficiency in digital asset regulation.