The Senate voted on April 9 to confirm Paul Atkins, a former commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to return to the agency—this time as its chair.
Atkins’s confirmation passed in a 52–44 vote following a party-line approval from the Senate Banking Committee last week.
Vowing to uphold the SEC’s core mission, Atkins said during his confirmation hearing that he would work with fellow commissioners and Congress to ensure that the agency adopts reasonable rules that promote corporate transparency while also encouraging innovation. He also pledged “to keep politics out of how our securities laws and regulations are applied.”
Atkins was asked at the hearing how he would respond to a request for collaboration from the Department of Government Efficiency, which is spearheading sweeping deregulation and cost-cutting efforts.
“If there are people who can help with creating efficiencies in the agency or otherwise, I would definitely work with them,” Atkins said. “We'll be reviewing what’s happening at the Commission to ensure taxpayer funds are being used properly and that the Commission’s work is being done effectively and efficiently.”
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, was supportive of Atkins’s confirmation.
Atkins is no stranger to the SEC. He previously served as a commissioner from 2002 to 2008 during the George W. Bush administration, and earlier in his career, he worked on the staff of former SEC Chairs Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt from 1990 to 1994.
Since 2017, Atkins has co-chaired the Token Alliance, an industry group dedicated to developing best practices for digital asset issuance and trading platforms. The group is part of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, a trade association that campaigns for the advancement of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
Atkins is generally viewed as an ally of the digital assets sector. His return to the SEC was celebrated in crypto circles, with bitcoin surpassing $100,000 for the first time on Dec. 4, 2024—shortly after then-President-elect Donald Trump picked Atkins to lead the regulatory body.
Many expect Atkins to take an approach to cryptocurrency regulation that is markedly different from that of his predecessor, Gary Gensler, who has maintained that existing securities and financial laws were sufficient to govern the crypto industry and pursued an aggressive enforcement agenda.
Atkins, by contrast, has suggested a much friendlier stance. In a 2023 appearance on the Kibbe on Liberty podcast, he said that the SEC should foster an environment where legal innovation in crypto can thrive within the United States rather than push companies abroad.
“Let’s try to accommodate activity that’s not criminal and enable markets to flourish,” he said.
