• Elon Musk shared a legal letter to X which said Neuralink faces a probe by the SEC.
• He shared the letter in a series of posts attacking and mocking SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
• Musk wrote, "Oh Gary, how could you do this to me?"

Elon Musk has revealed that Neuralink, his brain-chip implant company, is facing a probe from the Securities and Exchange Commission, with which he has long feuded.

Musk posted a letter on the subject to X Thursday, as well as a mocking, AI-generated image of SEC chair Gary Gensler. He called the SEC "just another weaponized institution doing political dirty work."

"Oh Gary, how could you do this to me?" Musk wrote in the post sharing the letter from his lawyer, Alex Spiro, to Gensler.

In the letter, which was said it was "in the matter of certain purchases, sales, and disclosures of Twitter shares," Spiro said the SEC "reopened" an investigation into Neuralink but didn't elaborate on why. It also said the SEC was preparing action against Musk over his 2022 acquisition of Twitter, now X.

The billionaire later shared another post featuring an AI-generated image of a snail wearing a business suit and said it depicted Gensler.

Neuralink and the SEC didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

The SEC is investigating how Musk bought shares in Twitter ahead of his $44 billion acquisition of the social network.

Musk started buying shares in Twitter in 2022, and by the spring, he had a 9% stake in the company before he struck a deal to buy it outright later in the year.

Spiro, Musk's lawyer, also said in the letter that the SEC issued a "settlement demand" on Wednesday to agree within 48 hours to make a payment or face enforcement action.

Spiro wrote that this followed "a multi-year investigation and more than six years of harassment" of Musk by the SEC.

This is an apparent reference to the SEC suing Musk in 2018 over a tweet in which he claimed he had the funding to take Tesla private, which led to him being forced to step down as chairman.

• Trump nominated Paul Atkins to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, a crypto-friendly move.
• Atkins is well known in conservative financial circles and an outspoken advocate for crypto.
• If confirmed, he'll replace Gary Gensler.

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Paul Atkins for chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Atkins was an SEC commissioner under President George W. Bush and is a well-known figure in Washington's conservative financial world. He's also an outspoken supporter of the crypto industry and cochairs the Chamber of Digital Commerce's Token Alliance, an industry-led initiative to represent the sector.

If confirmed, Atkins will replace Gary Gensler, who has drawn the ire of much of the crypto community and plans to step down as chair on January 20.

"Paul is a proven leader for common sense regulations," Trump said in a Truth Social post announcing the pick. He added that Atkins "recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before."

Atkin's nomination puts Trump a step closer to fulfilling his promise to create a more crypto-friendly regulatory regime. On the campaign trail, Trump promised to fire Gensler, who crypto players have criticized for stifling innovation and creating uncertainty with his approach to regulating the industry.

Bitcoin and ethereum both rose on the news and were up 3.3% and 7.7%, respectively, around 3:40 p.m. ET. Bitcoin is once again testing the key $100,000 threshold that it nearly cleared last week before reversing course.

During his tenure, Gensler led the SEC on a crackdown on crypto issuers for dealing in what the agency said were unregistered securities. Industry insiders soured on his stance, blaming Gensler for pushing crypto business out of the US.

Following last month's news that Gensler would resign when Trump takes office, crypto token XRP rallied sharply to become the third largest coin by market capitalization. The token had languished in recent years as the SEC targeted issuer Ripple Labs for violating securities law. The market expects the agency to drop that lawsuit and many other crypto suits under Trump.