This article will introduce you to the new SEC Chairman Paul Atkins: Can the crypto industry celebrate?

A chairman much more friendly to the crypto industry than Gary Gensler.

Author: jk

Original: Odaily Planet Daily

Cover: Photo by Nik Shuliahin on Unsplash

On Wednesday, December 4th local time, President-elect Trump announced that he is formally nominating cryptocurrency advocate and Patomak Partner CEO Paul Atkins to serve as the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

"Paul is a principled leader of common-sense regulation," Trump posted on Truth Social. "He believes in strong, innovative capital markets that respond to the needs of investors and provide capital for our economy to be the best in the world. He also recognizes that digital assets and other innovations are critical to making America greater than ever before."

Atkins served on Trump's economic advisory council during his first term, which also included JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, General Motors' Mary Barra, and BlackRock's Larry Fink.

Following the news release, Bitcoin saw a major surge. According to OKX data, Bitcoin rose from around $95,000 to over $98,000, reaching a high of nearly $98,950, with some data sites (such as Coingecko) showing Bitcoin has already broken $99,000, targeting the $100,000 medium-term target.

Why is this? It's simply because Paul Atkins is far, far more friendly to the crypto industry than the current chairman, Gary Gensler. CNN directly declared, "There's a lot for the crypto industry to celebrate." Let's start with his professional background.

Professional Background

According to the SEC website and the Patomak Global Partners website, Atkins' background is a typical one of moving from a U.S. government agency to a corporate institution in a senior role.

Atkins began his legal career at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York City, focusing on handling various corporate transactions for American and foreign clients, including public and private securities offerings and mergers and acquisitions. He spent two and a half years stationed in the firm's Paris office and obtained French legal consultant status in 1988.

From 1990 to 1994, Atkins worked in the offices of two former SEC chairmen, Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt. Under Chairman Breeden, he assisted in improving corporate governance-related regulations, enhancing shareholder communication, strengthening management accountability through proxy reform, and lowering barriers for small and mid-market companies to access capital markets. Under Chairman Levitt, he was responsible for organizing the SEC's individual investor initiatives, including the first-time investor town hall meetings and the SEC Consumer Affairs Advisory Committee.

According to his SEC profile, his most notable case was the Bennett Funding Group, Inc., a $1 billion leasing company that perpetrated one of the largest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history, resulting in the loss of most of their investments for over 20,000 investors. Atkins assisted the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee, serving as the crisis CEO of the sole surviving Bennett subsidiary. By stabilizing its finances and operations, and rebuilding and expanding its business, he increased the remaining investors' share price by nearly 2000%. In a sense, this was a role of salvaging the situation, similar to the aftermath of the FTX bankruptcy.

Subsequently, Atkins was appointed by President Bush, serving as an SEC Commissioner from 2002 to 2008. From 2009 to 2010, he was appointed as a member of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

From 2012 to 2015, he served as an independent director and non-executive chairman of the board of BATS Global Markets, Inc., a leading operator of securities markets in the U.S. and Europe, trading listed cash equities and stock options (now acquired by CBOE).

Since 2017, Atkins has been involved in the digital currency space: he has served as the co-chair of the Token Alliance, leading industry efforts to develop policy practices for digital asset issuance and trading platforms.

Encryption Policy and Friendliness

As mentioned in the previous part, he has served as the co-chairman of the Token Alliance since 2017. The official website shows that the Token Alliance is an industry initiative led by the Digital Commerce Association, aiming to become a key resource for tokenized networks and applications. The alliance consists of more than 400 industry thought leaders, technical experts and innovators, and the Token Alliance has developed a series of tools and resources to help the industry and policymakers make informed decisions when participating in the token economy.

He has spoken out directly on the crypto industry less often. However, according to an Associated Press report, during his time at the Token Alliance, Atkins helped develop a set of practical crypto regulatory proposals. If confirmed as SEC chairman, he is widely seen as likely to take a more lenient regulatory approach, especially in contrast to Gary Gensler's previous approach.

Meanwhile, his current company Patomak, as a financial consulting firm, is actually providing services to crypto-related clients, including exchanges and companies looking to integrate digital currencies into their businesses.

Republican Congressman Patrick McHenry of North Carolina said Atkins has the experience to "restore trust in the SEC." On X, he wrote: "I believe his leadership will bring clarity to the digital asset ecosystem and ensure the U.S. capital markets remain the focus of the world."

Hester Pierce, the "crypto mom" who is extremely friendly to the crypto industry and also an SEC commissioner, tweeted on the X platform: "We have a lot of work to do at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to advance free markets, capital formation, investor choice, and innovation. I'm delighted that Paul Atkins will be returning to lead this work. I had the privilege of working for him during his previous tenure at the agency, and I can't imagine anyone better suited for the job."

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