The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that Paul Atkins was officially sworn into office as the 34th chairman of the commission.
Atkins, a vocal supporter of the digital asset space, was nominated by President Donald Trump on January 20, 2025, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 9, 2025.
“I am honored by the trust and confidence President Trump and the Senate have placed in me to lead the SEC,” said Atkins. “As I return to the SEC, I am pleased to join with my fellow Commissioners and the agency’s dedicated professionals to advance its mission to facilitate capital formation; maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets; and protect investors. Together, we will work to ensure that the U.S. is the best and most secure place in the world to invest and do business.”
The new SEC chairman is expected to continue efforts underway at the regulator to establish a clear regulatory framework for digital asset oversight, in line with President Trump’s pro-crypto agenda.
Trump first indicated that Atkins was his preferred choice for SEC chairman in December 2024.
“As Co-Chairman of the Digital Chamber’s Token Alliance since 2017, he has worked on & studied the digital assets industry. A former SEC Commissioner from 2002-2008, Paul strongly advocated for transparency & protecting investors,” wrote Trump, in a post on Truth Social.
He added that Atkins “recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before.”
Atkins was appointed by former President George W. Bush as SEC commissioner from 2002-2008. Before returning to the SEC, he was most recently chief executive of Patomak Global Partners, a strategy, risk management, and compliance consultancy he founded in 2009.
Monday’s SEC announcement also noted that in his previous position, Atkins had “helped lead efforts to develop best practices for the digital asset sector.”
During a Senate Banking Committee hearing in March, Atkins said a “top priority” of his chairmanship would be to provide a “firm regulatory foundation for digital assets through a rational, coherent and principled approach.”
This marks a clear divergence from former Chairman Gary Gensler’s ‘regulation-by-enforcement’ approach, which Atkins referred to as “disturbing.”
Gensler, who retired in January, frequently asserted that the digital asset space was “rife” with fraud and mismanagement and that current securities laws were perfectly sufficient to regulate the industry. For this reason, the former chairman divided opinion in Washington D.C., with critics—largely Republicans—accusing him of being overly heavy-handed and stifling innovation.
Since Gensler’s retirement, the SEC has been under the temporary stewardship of Acting Chair Mark Uyeda, a Republican member of the SEC, who had previously called Gensler’s reign a “disaster for the whole industry.”
The pro-crypto SEC
During his brief spell in charge of the SEC, Uyeda wasted no time remolding the agency in President Trump’s image.
One of Uyeda’s first acts was to remove the agency’s controversial staff accounting bulletin 121 (SAB 121).
SAB 121 was released in March 2022 as a policy guideline, outlining how virtual asset service providers (VASPs) must handle accounting for digital assets and putting additional capital requirements on banks wanting to handle digital assets for clients. It contained strict guidelines for institutions looking to custody digital assets, including the requirement that VASPs maintain their users’ digital asset holdings on their own balance sheets.
In January, shortly after taking up his temporary position, Uyeda published a new staff accounting bulletin, SAB 122, rescinding this previous guidance.
Further changes followed soon afterward. On March 10, at the 2025 Annual Washington Conference of the Institute of International Bankers, Uyeda said he had asked SEC staff “for options on abandoning” part of a proposed rule change that could force some digital asset firms to register with the regulator as exchanges. A week later, on March 17, Uyeda announced that he had asked staff to consider dropping a Biden-era proposal to tighten digital asset custody requirements.
On top of these policy moves, on January 21, Uyeda also launched the SEC’s new ‘Crypto Task Force,’ led by Commissioner Hester “Crypto Mom” Peirce—as the moniker suggests—a fellow crypto-advocate.
The task force is in the process of holding a series of roundtables with industry advocates and commentators to help flesh out a clear framework for digital asset oversight. Thus far, the indication has been that the agency is shaping up for a distinctly pro-innovation approach to enforcement.
All these actions clearly signaled a move toward President Trump’s pro-crypto stance, and based on his previous comments—as well as Trump’s endorsement—it’s expected that Atkins will continue to steer the SEC in this direction.
Partisan popularity
While it’s almost certain that Atkins’ stewardship of the SEC and approach to digital asset oversight will diverge significantly from that of his predecessor, Gensler, one thing the two chairmen share is the ability to divide opinion.
Atkins’ nomination was not met with universal approval, with some noting it as a characteristically pro-digital asset choice and a move away from the consumer protection focus that characterized Gensler’s reign.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, highlighted Atkins’ questionable record in the finance space, saying she was: “Concerned about putting at the helm of the SEC a Wall Street lobbyist whose main contribution during the last financial crisis was to protest fines against the giant corporations that defrauded investors.”
However, others were more optimistic, suggesting that Atkins does understand the need for controls.
“It’s a good choice. It’s a relief. I think he’s very solid philosophically,” said Sheila Bair, former Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for Financial Institutions, in a December 4 interview with news commentary show Market Domination.
Blair went on to suggest that, despite Atkins being “very in line with the president-elect,” he is also “a seasoned hand” and “understands the need for regulation.”
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) also voiced support, telling Politico in December that the prospective—at the time—SEC chairman “has the right experience, and I think he’s a commissioner that would work well with Congress.”
As Atkins now takes his seat at the head of the Securities watchdog in the midst of a significant shake-up and shift in policy for the regulator, this optimistic prediction will soon be put to the test.
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James Field
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