Trump to nominate Paul Atkins, a cryptocurrency advocate, for SEC chair
President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday he intends to nominate Cryptocurrency advocate Paul Atkins becomes chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Trump said Atkins, CEO of Patomak Partners and a former SEC commissioner, is a “recognized leader in common-sense regulation.” In the years since leaving the SEC, Atkins has campaigned against excessive market regulation.
“He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that meet the needs of investors and provide the capital to make our economy the best in the world. He also recognizes the importance of digital assets and other innovations in making America the best economy in the world. It matters more than ever,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The committee, which oversees U.S. securities markets and investments, is currently led by Gary Gensler, who has been leading the U.S. government’s crackdown on the cryptocurrency industry. Gensler was nominated by President Joe Biden, Announce Last month, he was set to resign on Trump’s inauguration day (January 20, 2025).
Trump was once a cryptocurrency skeptic, Promising to make the U.S. the “cryptocurrency capital of the planet” and create a “strategic reserve” of Bitcoin. Since his victory, money has poured into crypto assets. Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency with a current price of over $95,000. Shares of crypto platform Coinbase have soared more than 70% since the election.
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal posted on X congratulating Atkins.
“We applaud his balanced commitment to regulating U.S. securities markets and look forward to his new leadership at the (SEC),” Grewal wrote. “This is urgently needed and cannot come too soon.”
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, said he was concerned that Atkins would not adequately regulate cryptocurrencies as SEC chairman.
“He may take the position that no cryptocurrency is a security and therefore no exchange that handles cryptocurrencies is a stock exchange,” Sherman said. “The opportunity to deceive investors will exist in a very significant way.”
Atkins began his career as a lawyer and has a long history of working in the financial markets area in government and private practice. In the 1990s, he worked under two former SEC chairs, Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt.
He began serving as SEC commissioner in 2002, when corporate scandals at Enron and WorldCom drew intense attention from Wall Street and its government regulators.
During his tenure at the SEC, Atkins was widely considered the most conservative member of the SEC and was known for his strong free-market leanings. As a 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 against those who use the Internet to steal investors, manipulate markets, engage in Ponzi schemes and other types of fraud.
Atkins, meanwhile, opposes imposing harsh penalties on companies accused of fraud, saying it does not deter crime. In the summer of 2006, he caused an uproar when he said that granting stock options to executives before the disclosure of news that would surely increase stock prices did not constitute insider trading.
Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said Atkins has the experience needed to “restore confidence in the SEC.”
McHenry posted on X: “I believe his leadership will lead to clarity in the digital asset ecosystem and ensure that U.S. capital markets remain the envy of the world.”
Atkins already has some experience working for Trump. During Trump’s first term, Atkins was a member of the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum, an advisory group of more than a dozen CEOs and business leaders who discussed how to create jobs and Provide advice on accelerating economic growth.
In 2017, Atkins joined the cryptocurrency advocacy group Token Alliance.
Cryptocurrency industry players welcomed Trump’s victory, hoping he would push for legislative and regulatory changes they have long lobbied for.
Trump himself founded World Liberty Financial, a new venture with family members involved in cryptocurrency trading.
