Economist Timothy Peterson stated that the US Supreme Court's decision to overturn the Chevron doctrine will prevent the SEC from being considered an "automatic subject matter expert" on cryptocurrency as of June 28.

The Chevron doctrine originated from a 1984 case, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which established a test to determine when US federal courts should defer to agency interpretations of laws and statutes.

Impact on SEC authority

According to Peterson, overturning the Chevron doctrine limits the SEC's "unilateral interpretive power" over Bitcoin.

Peterson wrote:

“This is the BIGGEST win for Bitcoin. Far more important than any one case or law.”

He argued that the decision will require courts to more closely scrutinize the SEC's anti-crypto stance, potentially leading to fairer regulations and a more balanced legal environment, and reducing the SEC's ability to classify assets as securities.

FOX Business reporter Eleanor Terrett noted that while the end of Chevron doesn't completely strip the SEC of its enforcement capabilities, it raises questions about whether Congress has authorized the SEC to regulate crypto as a security.

Terrett suggested that ending Chevron could affect the SEC's case against Consensys and its claim that certain tokens are securities, saying:

“The SEC’s claim that Consensys is an unregistered broker dealer engaging in the offer and sale of unregistered securities [may have] less weight in the eyes of a judge than [before].”

In January, lawyer Paul Clement argued in Loper Bright Enterprises vs. Raimondo, the case that led to Chevron's overturning on June 28. He used crypto as an example of the gridlock caused by Chevron, implying that agencies, like the SEC and its chair Gary Gensler, claim authority due to Congressional inaction on crypto.

He stated:

“There’s an agency head out there that thinks … he’s going to wave his wand and he’s going to say the words ‘investment contract’ are ambiguous, and that’s going to suck all of this into [his] regulatory ambit.”

He later remarked that someone will "litigate whether crypto is an investment contract" and that overturning Chevron could positively influence such cases.

Chevron overturned in non-crypto cases

The US Supreme Court overturned Chevron in two cases on June 28: Relentless Inc. v. Dept. of Commerce and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), responsible for the first case, explained that the decision means statutory gaps and ambiguities no longer grant authority to agencies, requiring Article III courts to resolve these ambiguities.

In overturning the doctrine, Judge John Roberts said:

“The only way to ‘ensure that the law will not merely change erratically, but will develop in a principled and intelligible fashion,’ is for us to leave Chevron behind.”

Although these cases are not specifically related to crypto or the SEC, the NCLA emphasized the broad implications of the decision, noting that it prevents "every federal agency" from abusing deference and calling it "a pivotal reform whose full impact will be revealed with time.”