Paul Atkins has taken oath to formally become chairman of the US security and exchange commission, which returns Mark Uida to his previous role as a Republican Commissioner after three busy months of service as the agency’s stand-in manager.
Atkins permanently replaces former chairman Gary Gensler, whom the crypto industry had largely seen as his main antagonist in the US government. But Uyeda and Colleague Commissioner Hester Peirce have already set SEC on a path to greater acceptance of digital assets, formed a crypto -task force that throws a long list of industrial enforcement actions and the collection of industry representatives in a number of crypto -round tables. Agency’s staff also released statements that announced different corners of crypto as outside its securities jurisdiction.
The new chairman said he was honored by “trust and trust” Trump and the US Senate placed in him and is happy to start working with the other commissioners.
“Together we will work to ensure that the United States is the best and most secure place in the world to invest and do business,” he said in a statement.
Atkins, who was confirmed by the Senate as President Donald Trump’s nominees earlier this month, had previously served as a SEC Commissioner and run a consultancy firm in Washington focusing on compliance and political issues. In addition to his Wall Street, Atkins had also assumed advisory roles with cryptic companies.
The Senate easily approved Atkins with a 52-44 vote, although the Senate Bank Committee had made its confirmation along party lines. All of the panel’s Democrats were against the nominee, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, who criticized Atkins’ previous term in SEC from 2002 to 2008, and ties it to the global financial crisis in 2008.
SEC is facing a significant crypto agenda that has been potentially made more complicated by Trump’s personal business interests in the industry, including in the World Liberty Financials Stablecoin and in Memecoins (as the president’s own $ Trump). However, its possible crypto regulations will be largely instructed by future legislation, which is now a priority in Congress.
Atkins’ tenure begins with an incomplete commission with only four of its five members in place. And the only Democrat – Caroline Crenshaw – occupies an already expired period. The White House has not yet been moved to fill the two democratic castles on the Commission, and other regulators have seen Trump try to strip democratic members of their positions.
Read more: Trump’s choice to run Sec Paul Atkins promises new crypto attitude, get few questions
