Who is Future SEC Chair Paul Atkins?

President-elect Donald Trump pledged to make America the crypto capital of the world and end the Biden Administration’s anti-crypto crusade during his time on the campaign trail. Today, he announced that long-time SEC insider Paul Atkins will succeed Gary Gensler as SEC chair.

While mainstream media is comfortable portraying Atkins as a “cryptocurrency advocate,” there are still looming concerns about how accommodative a career regulator will actually be for the crypto industry.

In our pursuit of clarity, we must first ask the question: who is Paul Atkins? 🧐

👔 Career Regulator

Paul Atkins graduated with J.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1983 and spent the majority of his career working with American financial regulations.

He began service at the SEC in 1990 under the first Bush Administration, assisting financial services firms in improving their compliance with SEC regulations and working with law enforcement agencies to investigate and rectify situations where investors had been harmed.

Atkins was appointed as an SEC commissioner under the second Bush Administration in 2002 and held his position through to term completion in August 2008. During this time, Atkins represented the SEC in prestigious posts at the U.S.-EU Transatlantic Economic Council, the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, the World Economic Forum, and the Transatlantic Business Dialogue.

In 2016, Atkins was selected to join a business forum that provided then President-elect Trump with strategic policy advice on economic issues, and in 2017, Atkins founded Patomak Global Partners, a consulting firm that helps both traditional and crypto companies comply with financial regulators. 

🔗 Blockchain Background

While America’s incoming SEC chair is no crypto native, he certainly appears to be familiar with blockchain technology, or at least the financial regulations which are intended to govern investment contracts and that should apply to digital assets sold as securities.

Not only does Atkins provide crypto companies with advice on how to comply with U.S. financial regulations, he is also a member of The Digital Chamber, an XRP-associated blockchain advocacy group founded in 2014 by White House intern turned RT America host Perianne Boring that has been a vocal in its own desire to apply pertinent financial regulations to crypto assets/applications without unfairly stifling innovation.

Providing additional credence to speculation that Atkins’ appointment as SEC chair may be supportive for the crypto industry, in a speech made earlier this year at the Federalist Society, Atkins detested the clear lack of rules surrounding cryptocurrency as a "fundamental underlying issue" for regulators to address.

Conclusion

Although crypto industry leaders were initially enthusiastic about the nomination of blockchain professor Gary Gensler as SEC chair, numerous top projects were relentlessly pursued for alleged securities violations during his tenure at the agency.

Despite positive reception for Atkins’ outward display of blockchain familiarity, he certainly wasn't the most explicitly pro-crypto candidate for the role and his selection perhaps showcases that Trump is likely less interested in fully disrupting the commission.

Many are expecting the CFTC to take a more active role in crypto regulation under the Trump Administration, and even though a number of more explicitly pro-crypto candidates have been floated for that role too, there are still plenty of unknowns.

While regulatory clarity on how security status applies to digital assets can be expected from the Atkins SEC, whether permissionless blockchain incumbents will rejoice in the end result remains unclear, though plenty in the industry are feeling hopeful for a Trump appointee that closes the book on Gensler's reign of terror.