President-elect Donald Trump said today that he intends to nominate Patomak Global Partners chief executive Paul Atkins as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Atkins, Trump said in a post on Truth Social, “is a proven leader for common sense regulations.”
The president-elect added that Atkins “recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before.”
Atkins, who served as an SEC commissioner from 2002 to 2008 during the George W. Bush administration, has co-chaired the Token Alliance — a pro-crypto policy group — since 2017.
Regime Change at the SEC
It would represent a turning of the tide at the SEC with Atkins replacing the crypto-skeptic Gary Gensler, who announced last month that he would step down as chair on Inauguration Day.
Gensler actively pursued tougher regulation of the highly speculative cryptocurrency industry, which has seen major scandals in recent years, including the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX.
At the Aspen Security Forum in 2021, Gensler argued that there isn’t “enough investor protection in crypto,” and compared the industry to “the Wild West.”
The cryptocurrency asset class, he said, “is rife with fraud, scams, and abuse in certain applications,” pointing to the “hype and spin” about how the assets function.
Gensler has walked the walk, pursuing enforcement action against leading crypto exchange markets Binance and Coinbase.
Globely News covers the game changers transforming the worlds of business, sports, politics, and technology. From AI and electric vehicles to the rise of China and the NFL's next stars, we've got you covered.