Author: Golden Finance
Former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins has become the top candidate for the chair of the agency under President-elect Trump's new administration.
According to financial journalist Eleanor Terrett's post on X, Atkins is known for his pro-innovation stance and expertise in crypto, and it is said that he has the ability to 'restore the so-called gold standard' to the institution.
After Gary Gensler's resignation in January 2025, Atkins will become SEC chair, meaning that U.S. cryptocurrency regulation may help promote innovation rather than hinder it.
(Former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins)
1. Who is Atkins?
Atkins was born in Lillington, North Carolina, and grew up in Tampa, Florida. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wofford College in 1980 and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Kappa Alpha Order.
Atkins' career began as an attorney at New York City law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, where he handled various corporate transactions for both U.S. and foreign clients, including public and private securities offerings and mergers and acquisitions. He worked for two and a half years at the firm's Paris office and obtained his French legal advisor qualification in 1988.
Before being appointed as a commissioner, Atkins assisted financial services firms in improving compliance with SEC regulations and collaborated with law enforcement to investigate and rectify situations where investors had been harmed. One notable case was Bennett Funding Group, Inc., a leasing company valued at $1 billion, which committed the largest Ponzi fraud in U.S. history at the time. More than 20,000 investors lost most of their investment. According to Atkins' SEC biography, he assisted the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee for the company and served as the crisis president of Bennett's only surviving subsidiary. By stabilizing finances and operations and rebuilding and expanding the business, he increased the stock value for remaining investors by nearly 2000%.
From 1990 to 1994, Atkins served as a staff member to the first two SEC chairmen, Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt. Under Breeden's leadership, he helped improve corporate governance regulations, enhance shareholder communication, strengthen management accountability through proxy reforms, and lower the barriers for small and mid-sized companies to access capital markets. Under Levitt's leadership, he was responsible for organizing the SEC's individual investor initiatives, including the first investor town hall meetings and the SEC's Consumer Affairs Advisory Committee.
Atkins served as a Commissioner of the SEC from July 9, 2002, until his term ended in August 2008. He worked alongside Chairmen Harvey Pitt, William H. Donaldson, and Christopher Cox.
In December 2016, Atkins participated in a business forum organized by President-elect Trump, providing strategic and policy advice on economic issues.
2. Atkins' image as a defender of digital assets
Atkins served as a Republican SEC Commissioner during the George W. Bush administration and later founded a consulting firm, Patomak Global Partners, serving major financial industry clients.
He is a strong supporter of digital assets and fintech companies. He has also testified before Congress on how to restructure the agency's operations and reduce what some industry insiders consider redundant or overly burdensome regulations.
The industry often criticizes the SEC, led by Gensler, for creating regulations through enforcement rather than clearly defining how to comply with rules, a practice that may change with Trump's return to power. He promised supporters that he would establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve, appoint crypto-friendly regulators, and end the outgoing administration's 'anti-crypto campaign.'
Under the new leadership, the SEC is expected to continue focusing on what is seen as its core mission: rooting out fraud, combating insider trading, preventing Ponzi schemes, and curbing misleading or exaggerated disclosures.
Atkins' leadership is expected to provide a more innovation-friendly environment for U.S. cryptocurrency regulation, potentially reversing what critics call the current SEC leadership's overreach.
3. New trends in cryptocurrency under the Trump administration
Trump is considering transferring regulatory authority over cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency exchanges from the SEC to the CFTC. Under SEC oversight, Bitcoin is classified as a commodity, and in the future, under CFTC leadership, Bitcoin will move towards a more innovative outlook. Previously, under former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo, the agency established itself as an innovation advocate when it approved Bitcoin back in 2017. Giancarlo stated, 'With sufficient funding and the right leadership, I believe the CFTC could begin regulating digital commodities on the first day of Trump's presidency.'
As of November 23 local time, all cabinet nominees for Trump's new administration have been confirmed. Additionally, Trump has nominated several high-ranking officials in recent weeks. From the new government list, in addition to familiar names in the crypto market like Musk and Howard Lutnick, several cabinet officials are staunch supporters of cryptocurrency and have publicly disclosed their cryptocurrency holdings, including the nominated Vice President, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Director of National Intelligence.
Galaxy CEO Michael Novogratz stated in an interview with CNBC that almost all members of President-elect Trump's cabinet hold Bitcoin and are strong supporters of digital assets. He noted that these members support innovation, digital assets, and Bitcoin itself. Novogratz also mentioned that he wouldn't be surprised if cryptocurrency prices rise further. The market is in a price discovery phase with limited supply.
VanEck analysts believe that given Trump's strong support for Bitcoin and his focus on repatriation and supply chains, El Salvador could become a strategic partner for the U.S. in establishing a regional alliance.
4. Predictions on whether Trump's presidency will benefit the crypto industry
Bullish voices:
Galaxy expects that active trading activity in BlackRock's IBIT ETF options will continue until January 2027, about halfway through Donald Trump's presidency. This concentrated long-term activity level reflects investor confidence in the long-term growth potential of Bitcoin ETFs, signaling bullish sentiment for the coming years.
Deenar co-founder Maruf Yusupov stated that the rapid rise of Bitcoin after Trump won the U.S. election may reshape traditional views on inflation hedges. Trump's focus on tax cuts, tariffs, and cryptocurrencies is driving interest in Bitcoin as a modern alternative to gold. With accelerated institutional adoption, a significant shift of capital from gold to digital assets can be expected. deVere Group CEO Nigel Green also stated that Bitcoin is increasingly seen as a tool for hedging inflation and portfolio diversification, with institutional interest reaching historical highs and the infrastructure supporting mass adoption continually expanding. Copper.co research director Fadi Aboualfa also expressed the same view, emphasizing that the price trends of spot Bitcoin and gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are becoming increasingly similar.
Sky Mavis co-founder Jeffrey Zirlin stated in an interview that blockchain gaming and DeFi may benefit the most from Trump's presidency. Furthermore, Trump's election will ease regulatory pressures on 'token design' and allow for radical new innovations and experiments.
Ripple Labs CEO: 'The crypto industry has accepted Trump; Trump has accepted the crypto industry. I think this is very sincere, and I believe he sees opportunities, innovation, and entrepreneurship—I'm very excited about the future.'
QCP Capital stated in an official post that given Bitcoin's strong upward trend since the U.S. election, it believes that a target price of $100,000 to $120,000 may not be far off. The potential strength of BTC represents a systemic shift in the market in anticipation of Trump's return to the White House. His idea to initiate strategic BTC reserves and rotate from gold to BTC provides a strong bullish perspective that could support BTC prices.
Critics' voices:
Economist and Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff's criticism of President-elect Donald Trump's support for cryptocurrency plans has sparked new controversy. Schiff criticized the Trump administration's support for Bitcoin, claiming it would undermine the U.S. economy. On Monday, Schiff posted on social media platform X: 'When the government chooses winners and losers, it usually chooses losers. Since the Trump administration chose Bitcoin, Wall Street is winning big, misallocating capital to Bitcoin and related value-destructive enterprises.'
The nonprofit cryptocurrency advocacy organization Coin Center warns that while Trump's victory is a net positive for the cryptocurrency industry, entrenched policies may still scare cryptocurrency innovators away from the U.S. Coin Center research director Van Valkenburgh shared three 'serious threats' facing U.S. cryptocurrency users and developers entering 2025. The first major threat comes from the cryptocurrency reporting requirements outlined in Section 6050I of the U.S. tax code, which currently mandates that anyone receiving $10,000 in cryptocurrency must report it unconditionally to the IRS. Last August, Coin Center deemed these reporting requirements unconstitutional. The second and third major threats stem from sanctions against Tornado Cash and criminal charges against the mixing service and Samourai Wallet for unlicensed money transmission. Coin Center stated that the charges against Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm could set a troubling precedent for developers of unregulated crypto services.
