Jay Clayton, a potential candidate for crypto czar, established the SEC's regulation-by-enforcement approach to digital assets during his tenure as chairman under Trump's first administration. He created the agency's Cyber Unit in 2017 to police ICOs and launched the high-profile Ripple Labs case in 2020, accusing the company of failing to register $1.3 billion in XRP tokens as securities. Current SEC Chairman Paul Atkins later dismissed the Ripple action last year. By the time Clayton departed the SEC in 2020, the agency had brought 57 enforcement cases against digital assets, blockchain businesses, and ICOs. His record as a digital asset watchdog predates the enforcement stance associated with former Chairman Gary Gensler. Clayton previously served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York before being appointed this year as Trump's director of national intelligence.