WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has interviewed veteran financial regulator and conservative finance figure Paul Atkins as a candidate to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to people familiar with the matter.
Atkins is the leading candidate to replace outgoing SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, the people said, but they were not authorized to speak publicly. Trump is expected to make his choice in the coming days and no decision has been made yet, they said.
Current SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda, former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Heath Tarbert and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP partner Robert Stebbins are also under consideration, Bloomberg News reported earlier this month.
"President-elect Trump has made a lightning-fast and wise decision about who will serve in his second administration. The remaining decisions will be announced as he makes them," Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Atkins and his representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Atkins served as a Republican commissioner of the SEC during the Bush administration before founding Patomak Global Partners, a consulting firm that serves large clients in the financial industry.
He is a staunch supporter of digital assets and financial technology companies. He has also testified before Congress on how to restructure the agency's operations and reduce regulations that some industry participants consider duplicative or overly burdensome.
Trump had promised to fire Gensler on “day one,” but that vow was rendered meaningless when the former Goldman Sachs banker announced earlier this month that he would step down in January. Gensler’s SEC has an ambitious agenda to crack down on cryptocurrencies following a series of high-profile collapses, including the implosion of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange.
The SEC, led by Gensler, is often criticized by the industry for making regulations through enforcement rather than clarifying how to follow the rules, an approach that may change under the new administration. Trump, who once described cryptocurrencies as a scam against the dollar during his campaign, has since come back to support cryptocurrencies. He promised supporters that he would establish a strategic reserve of Bitcoin, appoint cryptocurrency-friendly regulators, and end the outgoing administration's "anti-cryptocurrency campaign."
Under the leadership of its new chairman, the SEC is expected to continue to focus on fundamental priorities: rooting out fraud, combating insider trading, stopping Ponzi schemes and curbing inaccurate, misleading or overly exaggerated disclosures.
Bitcoin resumes its rally, rekindling optimism for $100,000 milestone
Bitcoin climbed 6% on Wednesday, reaching $97,361 at one point. Ethereum surged more than 10% during the day, and was trading at $3,671 per coin as of press time, setting a new high in June.
“The market is in a price discovery phase, and after rising more than 45% from pre-election lows, the decline over the past few days looks like a healthy correction, likely driven by profit-taking,” said Jake Ostrovskis, an over-the-counter trader at Wintermute. “Traders believe the $100,000 level is likely to be breached.”
Nikolay Karpenko, director of B2C2, said some of the decline in Bitcoin earlier this week was caused by people taking profits as the price of Bitcoin approached a historic milestone. He said it was tactical and that Bitcoin is likely to break through $100,000 soon.
“Once some leverage is washed off and short-term buyers take profits, we believe Bitcoin may find a strong base of support and could make another attempt to break above the $100,000 level in the near term,” Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at Galaxy Digital, wrote in a note to clients.
Article forwarded from: Jinshi Data
