President-elect Donald Trump announced this on Wednesday he wants to nominate cryptocurrency attorney Paul Atkins becomes chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Trump said Atkins, the CEO of Patomak Partners and a former SEC commissioner, was a “proven leader in common-sense regulation.” In the years since his departure from the SEC, Atkins has taken a stand against too much market regulation.
“He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that respond to investor needs and provide capital to make our economy the best in the world. He also recognizes that digital assets and other innovations are critical to Making America Greater than ever before,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The commission oversees U.S. securities markets and investments and is currently led by Gary Gensler, who has led the U.S. government’s crackdown on the crypto industry. Gensler, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, announced last month that he would leave office on the day Trump is inaugurated – January 20, 2025.
Trump, once a crypto skeptic, had promised to make the US “the crypto capital of the planet.” and create a “strategic reserve” of bitcoin. Since he won, money has poured into crypto assets. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, is now above $95,000. And shares in crypto platform Coinbase have risen more than 70% since the election.
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal congratulated Atkins in a message about X.
“We appreciate his commitment to balance in regulating the U.S. securities markets and look forward to his new leadership at (the SEC),” Grewal wrote. “It is desperately needed and cannot come a day too soon.”
Congressman Brad Sherman, a California Democrat and a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, said he worries that Atkins as chairman of the SEC will not adequately regulate cryptocurrencies.
“He would probably take the position that no cryptocurrency is a security, and therefore no exchange that deals with crypto is a stock exchange,” Sherman said. “The ability to defraud investors would be there in a very significant way.”
Atkins began his career as a lawyer and has a long history in the financial markets industry, both in government and private practice. In the 1990s, he served on the staffs of two former SEC chairmen, Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt.
His work as SEC commissioner began in 2002, a time when the fallout from corporate scandals at Enron and WorldCom had increased pressure on Wall Street and its government regulators.
Atkins was widely regarded as the most conservative member of the SEC during his tenure at the agency and was known to have a strong pro-market bent. As commissioner, he called for greater transparency and analysis of the costs and benefits of new SEC rules.
He also emphasized investor education and increased enforcement efforts against those who steal from investors over the Internet, manipulate markets, engage in Ponzi schemes and other forms of fraud.
At the same time, Atkins objected to the harsh penalties imposed on companies accused of fraudulent behavior, arguing that they did not deter crime. He caused a stir in the summer of 2006 when he said that the practice of granting stock options to executives before the announcement of news that was sure to increase the stock price was not insider trading.
U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said Atkins has the experience needed to “restore confidence in the SEC.”
“I am confident his leadership will bring clarity to the digital asset ecosystem and ensure US capital markets remain the envy of the world,” McHenry wrote on X.
Atkins already has some experience working for Trump. During Trump’s first term, Atkins served on the president’s Strategic and Policy Forum, an advisory group of more than a dozen CEOs and business leaders who provided input on how to create jobs and speed economic growth.
In 2017, Atkins joined the Token Alliance, a cryptocurrency advocacy organization.
Crypto industry players welcomed Trump’s victory, hoping he would implement regulatory changes they have long lobbied for.
Trump himself has launched World Liberty Financial, a new venture with family members to trade cryptocurrencies.
