In recent months, the U.S. Supreme Court has delivered epochal rulings that are poised to reshape the regulatory landscape across various industries. Among the most significant decisions were Relentless v. Department of Commerce and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo as they overturned the 40-year-old landmark ruling in Chevron v. National Resources. The court's decision significantly alters administrative law and curtails the authority of federal agencies in interpreting the laws they enforce. This shift mandates that courts now rely on their own interpretation of ambiguous laws. Coupled with the implications of the SEC v. Jarkesy case, where the court found the SEC's use of in-house administrative law judges unconstitutional, these rulings have substantial implications for the burgeoning digital asset industry, including cryptocurrency.

Curtailing Agency Power and a Paradigm Shift

The Supreme Court's decisions in Loper Bright and Relentless, Inc. significantly curtail the power of federal agencies, such as the FTC and SEC, subjecting agency decisions to judicial scrutiny instead of deferring to the agency's interpretation of any particular statute or rule within that agency's scope. Proponents of Chevron argue that courts should defer to federal agencies' expertise in interpreting statutes, because these agencies are staffed with subject matter experts who conduct extensive research in their field on a daily basis. In contrast, judges, while highly knowledgeable jurists, will not possess the same depth of expertise. On the flip side, that deep agency expertise sometimes leads to myopic agency interpretations that have unintended consequences in the real world. The recent rulings in Loper Bright and Relentless, Inc. require that judicial interpretation prevail in cases of statutory ambiguity. This shift impacts all regulated industries, including environmental regulation, health care, and, notably, cryptocurrency and other digital assets. This shift signals two primary opportunities for the digital asset industry: