President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he has picked Paul Atkins, a former commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to lead the regulatory agency as its next Chairman.
Seen as a crypto-friendly successor to SEC Chair Gary Gensler—who has drawn the crypto industry’s ire for an aggressive string of enforcement actions under his leadership—Atkins served as an SEC commissioner for six years following his appointment by President George W. Bush.
He is currently the CEO of Patomak Global Partners, a financial services consultancy firm.
"Paul is a proven leader for common sense regulations," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. "He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of investors, and that provide capital to make our economy the best in the world. He also recognizes that digital assets and other innovations are crucial to making America greater than ever before."
While serving at the SEC as a commissioner, Atkins scrutinized the agency’s enforcement activities and decision-making, advocating for “better transparency and consistency,” according to the Federalist Society, a conservative law group.
Gensler announced last month that he would resign when Trump assumes the White House.
The slated resignation was widely celebrated by crypto advocates, who argue that the SEC has overstepped its authority in policing broad swathes of the crypto market.
During a panel discussion hosted by the Federalist Society in April, Atkins said that there is "humongous" regulatory uncertainty for the industry, and that Gensler's repeated calls for token issues to come in and register with the SEC were "disingenuous" due to a disconnect between requirements and how crypto technology actually works.
According to Atkins’ bio page at Patomak Global Ventures, the former commissioner “has led industry efforts to develop best practices for digital asset issuances” while serving as co-chair of the Token Alliance.
Established in 2017, the initiative from the Digital Chamber of Commerce was billed as a way to “promote and help shape the responsible growth” of token sales.
At the time, Akins described cryptocurrencies as a “new and exciting asset class,” expressing a sense of excitement toward lending his regulatory expertise to “help foster [the] ecosystem.”
Patomak Global Ventures did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt.
Trump’s likely pick was reported ahead of the official announcement by Politico and Unchained. Atkins will need Senate confirmation, though alternatively Trump could seek to appoint Atkins through a so-called recess appointment if the Senate isn’t in session.
Prior to Trump’s initial pick, SEC commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda were viewed as potential candidates, along with Chris Giancarlo, a former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), among others with regulatory experience.
Giancarlo, nicknamed “Crypto Dad” for his pro-bitcoin stance at the CFTC, recently said that Gensler’s successor would have to play clean-up at the SEC. Taking up the position from Gensler, Giancarlo wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) that he had “already cleaned up an earlier Gary Gensler mess” at the CFTC, refusing to do it again.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair