WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will nominate Paul Atkins, a former federal regulator whose parent company is friendly to the budding cryptocurrency industry, to head the Securities and Exchange Commission.
President Trump announced his nomination of Atkins, who served as a Republican SEC commissioner under former President George W. Bush from 2002 to 2008, in a post on Truth Social. President Trump called Atkins a “proven leader of common sense regulation.”
The SEC serves as an independent watchdog agency designed to protect Wall Street investors from fraud and misconduct while promoting market fairness and efficiency. The SEC is expected to move toward deregulation after four years of conflict between the agency and Wall Street under Chairman Gary Gensler, who was appointed by President Joe Biden and announced he would step down in January. are.
Atkins, 66, is the CEO and founder of Patomac Global Partners, a financial consulting firm whose clients include crypto companies and exchanges.
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“We believe in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that will meet investors' needs and provide the capital to make our economy the best in the world,” President Trump said in a statement. “He also recognizes that digital assets and other innovations are essential to making America greater than ever.”
Atkins is well known in Republican business circles and is co-chair of the Digital Chamber of Commerce's Token Alliance, where he has fought SEC regulations targeting the industry and advocated for Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Ta.
Under Mr. Gensler, the SEC has taken on the crypto industry, suing Coinbase, Kraken, Binance and others for violating SEC rules by failing to register with the agency.
Atkins appeared on a pro-crypto podcast last year and said there are “many ways rules can inhibit financial innovation” in the financial system.
“That's one of the reasons why the SEC should listen to the field and understand where things are going and try to embrace non-criminal activity and allow the market to thrive. .”
Contributed by: Reuters
Contact Joey Garrison at X (formerly Twitter, @joeygarrison).
