The U.S. Senate has approved Atkins' nomination to replace Gensler as SEC chairman.
Former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins will be sworn in as the next head of the agency and will be responsible for future regulation of the cryptocurrency sector.
Jesse Hamilton | Edited by Nikhilesh De Updated April 10, 2025, 9:06 pm Published April 9, 2025, 11:50 pm
Important points:
- The U.S. Senate has endorsed Paul Atkins' nomination to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission.
- Atkins, a former Republican commissioner, was appointed by President Donald Trump and is expected to push crypto-friendly policies.
Paul Atkins is just one step away from becoming the head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as President Donald Trump's nominee to oversee the country's securities sector, including the cryptocurrency sector.
The swearing-in ceremony will soon hand over responsibility for the high-profile regulator to the former SEC, a move that has been welcomed by the digital asset sector, which sees him as a strong ally thanks to his extensive experience working with crypto firms as a financial services consultant in Washington. Atkins’ confirmation in the Senate passed easily on Wednesday with a 52-44 vote. .
An experienced figure in U.S. financial policy—both in government and as an outside consultant—was expected to sail through the confirmation process smoothly, although the Senate Banking Committee approved Atkins' nomination along party lines, with all of the committee's Democrats opposed.
Atkins’ confirmation took the usual months to get through the Senate, and in the time between the departure of his predecessor, Gary Gensler, and Atkins’ arrival, Trump’s interim head of the agency, Mark Uyeda, has been pushing ahead with ambitious and sweeping cryptocurrency reform. The SEC has rolled back nearly all of its high-profile enforcement actions on digital assets, and its staff has quickly identified a number of industry segments it deems outside its jurisdiction, including some stablecoins, memecoins (like the president’s own $TRUMP), and proof-of-work mining.
Many of the areas where the agency has already demonstrated policy changes intersect with the Trump family’s crypto businesses, including the family’s meme coins and its ties to World Liberty Financial, which is pursuing its own stablecoin. Atkins will work on these issues to establish robust standards that can be targeted by future legislation, a priority in Congress right now.
Atkins' term will begin with a shortened commission that is to have five members, and the only Democrat, Caroline Crenshaw, is serving an expired term. The White House has not yet made a decision on filling the two Democratic positions on the commission.
