President-elect Donald Trump's pick to run the SEC, Paul Atkins, is the boss the crypto industry wanted.
Wall Street may like him too.
For years, Atkins has made it clear he favors clearer regulations of cryptocurrencies that don’t stifle innovation or impose unnecessary oversight. He also has criticized the Dodd-Frank legislation that was enacted after the 2008 financial crisis to rein in the biggest US banks.
Paul Atkins, the new nominee to run the SEC, pictured in 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo ·REUTERS / Reuters
Atkins, President-elect Donald Trump said in a statement posted to Truth Social on Wednesday, is "a proven leader for common sense regulations" and "recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before."
Atkins previously served as a Republican SEC commissioner from 2002 to 2008 and in 2009 founded Washington consulting firm Patomak Global Partners, which helps companies deal with US regulators.
Many expect him to take a much more favorable stance toward the crypto world. Atkins has said previously that the SEC’s aggressive approach to the industry could drive some firms to seek homes outside the US.
Outgoing Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler. REUTERS/Mike Segar ·REUTERS / Reuters
"If the SEC were more accommodating and would, you know, deal straightforwardly with these various [crypto] firms, I think it would be a lot better to have things happen here in the United States rather than outside," Atkins said on a podcast in February of last year.
Following Atkins's nomination, the price of bitcoin surged above $100,000 per coin Wednesday night. At the beginning of the year, the world's largest cryptocurrency traded at $42,265.
He "is the absolute right choice," Chris Giancarlo, a former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, told Yahoo Finance, calling him "an advocate for blockchain and digital assets."
The nomination of Atkins is "sorely needed and cannot come a day too soon," Coinbase (COIN) chief legal officer Paul Grewal added on X. Coinbase was one of many cryptocurrency companies sued by Gensler’s SEC.
The change at the top of the SEC is the latest of several signs that cryptocurrency is in a position to become a key focus for the new administration once it takes office in 2025.
Another was a report of discussions within the Trump transition team of creating the first-ever White House post dedicated to cryptocurrency policy, according to Bloomberg.
Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance, and several of Trump's presidential nominees have in the past disclosed or discussed their exposure to cryptocurrencies through asset ownership or business interests, according to federal filings and public statements.
Trump owned between $1 million and $5 million of ethereum (ETH-USD), the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, according to an August Federal Election Commission disclosure.
He and his sons are also backers of World Liberty Financial, a crypto project they have been promoting on social media.
In exchange for that promotion, a Trump family-owned limited liability corporation receives 22.5% of the project’s crypto token (WLFI-USD) along with 75% of any net revenues after World Liberty earns $30 million.
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump gestures at the Bitcoin 2024 event in Nashville, Tenn., July 27, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Wurm/File Photo ·Reuters / Reuters
Trump also has been meeting with crypto industry figures in recent weeks, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.
He also committed to establishing a strategic national bitcoin reserve with the help of Congress.
The appointment of Atkins to run the SEC would also likely be good news for Wall Street. He has long criticized financial reforms put in place during the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee in 2015, he criticized some of those rules. One significantly restricted banks from proprietary trading.
Another granted powers to a panel of regulators known as the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) that let those leaders designate nonbank financial institutions as "systemically important."
"This gaggle of regulators has substantial power to drive the regulatory agenda at its member agencies like the SEC," he said during that testimony.
"It has little accountability to Congress or to the American people."
David Hollerith is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance covering banking, crypto, and other areas in finance.
