President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday he plans to nominate Paul Atkins, former commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to lead the agency. The move paves the way for a crypto-friendly administration that could loosen regulations.
Atkins, CEO of financial services consulting firm Patomak Global Partners, would succeed Gary Gensler, a Biden nominee who cracked down on crypto after taking the helm in 2021. Gensler said in November he plans to resign on Jan. 20, the day Trump will be inaugurated. Trump had pledged on the campaign trail to remove him.
Atkins served as SEC commissioner from 2002 to 2008 under President George W. Bush.
Atkins, a lawyer and co-chair of the Token Alliance, has been helping to draft "best practices" for crypto trading platforms, The New York Times reported.
Besides being pro-crypto, Atkins has criticized some of the reforms that emerged from the financial crisis in 2008, including Dodd-Frank legislation aimed at the banking industry, CNBC reported.
Trump announced his nomination on his Truth Social platform, where he wrote that Atkins "recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before." The nomination needs Senate confirmation.
The crypto market has surged since the November election sent Trump and hundreds of other pro-crypto candidates to Washington, D.C. The industry funded their campaigns with tens of millions of dollars.
But there are concerns over who will keep crypto donors in check and consumers safe. An industry-wide collapse in 2022 resulted in several executives punished for misleading consumers.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year prison sentence after he was convicted of defrauding customers.
Alexander Mashinsky, founder and former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency platform Celsius Network, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to federal fraud charges in a scheme that netted $48 billion.
