Trump Nom­i­nates Cryp­to Advo­cate To Be SEC Chair­man

Pres­i­dent-elect Don­ald Trump announced on Wednes­day that he has nom­i­nat­ed cryp­tocur­ren­cy advo­cate Paul Atkins to be the next Chair­man of the Secu­ri­ties & Exchange Com­mis­sion.

The Wash­ing­ton Post report­ed that his nom­i­na­tion sig­nals a “sig­nif­i­cant polit­i­cal shift for Washington’s lead­ing cop on Wall Street,” indi­cat­ing that the Trump admin­is­tra­tion will like­ly ush­er in a new era of dereg­u­la­tion and a relax­ing of some of its enforce­ment oper­a­tions.

“Paul is a proven leader for com­mon sense reg­u­la­tions,” Trump said in a state­ment. “He believes in the promise of robust, inno­v­a­tive cap­i­tal mar­kets that are respon­sive to the needs of Investors, & that pro­vide cap­i­tal to make our Econ­o­my the best in the World. He also rec­og­nizes that dig­i­tal assets & oth­er inno­va­tions are cru­cial to Mak­ing Amer­i­ca Greater than Ever Before.”

Atkins was appoint­ed in 2002 to be a Com­mis­sion­er of the Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion by Pres­i­dent George W. Bush, a role he served in through late 2008.

He earned his J.D. from Van­der­bilt Uni­ver­si­ty School of Law and start­ed his career as an attor­ney in New York City, where he focused on “cor­po­rate trans­ac­tions for U.S. and for­eign clients, includ­ing pub­lic and pri­vate secu­ri­ties offer­ings and merg­ers and acqui­si­tions,” accord­ing to the SEC.

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Atkins has worked with law enforce­ment agen­cies to “inves­ti­gate and rec­ti­fy sit­u­a­tions where investors had been harmed.”

He is the founder and CEO of the risk man­age­ment com­pa­ny Patomak Glob­al Part­ners, a firm that spe­cial­izes in advis­ing finan­cial firms and cryp­tocur­ren­cy com­pa­nies.

U.S. sen­a­tors praised Trump for pick­ing Atkins to lead the SEC.

Sen. Cyn­thia Lum­mis (R‑WY) said that the nom­i­na­tion was “a huge win for finan­cial inno­va­tion.”

“Pres­i­dent Trump promised to have the most pro-dig­i­tal asset admin in U.S. his­to­ry, and I am look­ing for­ward to work­ing with both of them to pro­mote inno­va­tion and make our econ­o­my strong again,” she said.

Sen. Katie Britt (R‑AL) con­grat­u­lat­ed Atkins on the nom­i­na­tion in a post on X, say­ing that it was “anoth­er step clos­er to strong pro-mar­kets, pro-inno­va­tion, and pro-growth lead­er­ship at the SEC.”