Donald Trump nominates Paul Atkins to lead the SEC – Easy Method

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Paul Atkins, a cryptocurrency advocate, to join the Securities and Exchange Commission as its next chairman.

“I am delighted to announce the nomination of Paul Atkins to be the next Chairman of the Securities & Exchange Commission,” Trump said Wednesday, announcing a flurry of nominees on his Truth Social platform.

“Paul is a proven leader for common sense regulations,” he continued, noting that Atkins “recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before.”

Atkins, who now leads the consulting firm Patomak Global Partners, is expected to be much friendlier to cryptocurrency interests than President Joe Biden’s SEC Chairman, Gary Gensler. Last month, Gensler — who has been maligned by the crypto lobby — said he would resign during Trump’s inauguration ceremony.

In 2017, Atkins was announced as co-chair of the Token Alliance, an initiative developed by The Digital Chamber to advocate best practices and recommend legal frameworks that promote the industry. The Chamber’s mission, according to its website, is to promote the use of digital assets and tech based on the blockchain.

Putting Atkins — an industry proponent — in the SEC chair’s seat would fulfill one of Trump’s key promises to the crypto lobby.

Trump — who once looked down on crypto — has called for a strategic national Bitcoin reserve, declared all Bitcoin should be mined in the U.S., and attached his name to multiple crypto projects this year. He also promised to make the U.S. a “world capital” for crypto and establish a crypto advisory council.

“Crypto is one of those things we have to do,” Trump said in September as he formally launched the World Liberty Financial project. “Whether we like it or not, I have to do it.”

Atkins was last a member of the SEC when President George W. Bush was in office. As a Republican commissioner, Atkins opposed massive fines on companies that violated securities laws and later vowed to dismantle Dodd-Frank, which enhanced federal regulatory authority following the disastrous 2008 financial crisis. He has testified before Congress on ways to restructure the SEC and slash some regulations that can be considered burdensome.

Atkins, a libertarian, was also a member of Trump’s 2016 transition team as an advisor on financial regulation. According to Politico, he worked on the transition landing teams for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.