President-elect Donald Trump is considering selecting Paul Atkins as SEC chairman because he is the “favorite” candidate on his transition team, Fox Business’ Eleanor Terrett revealed Thursday night.
Speaking to two anonymous sources close to Mar-a-Lago, Terrett revealed that Atkins was allegedly “leading” the race for the coveted position at the federal regulator.
According to Terrett, Atkins – who previously served under SEC chairmen Richard Breeden and Arthur Levitt – is both “proficient in cryptocurrencies” and has a “deep understanding of the agency’s internal mechanisms.”
“Atkins is seen as someone capable of establishing a pro-innovation agenda while restoring the agency to the so-called ‘gold standard’ that many in the Republican Party believe was lost under outgoing Chairman Gary Gensler,” Terrett said in a November 26 X post.
Donald Trump’s stance on regulating digital assets
News of Atkins’ potential leadership came amid reports that Trump could substantially shift regulatory oversight of digital assets from the SEC to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
According to Bloomberg, the current potential successors to CFTC chief Rostin Benham – including CFTC official Jill Sommers and Republican commissioner Caroline Pham – could only benefit the digital assets industry as a whole.
Meanwhile, current SEC Chairman Gary Gensler announced his resignation as federal regulator last week ahead of Trump’s inauguration in January 2025.
“The Securities and Exchange Commission is an extraordinary agency,” – Gensler wrote in a farewell press release. “It has been a lifetime honor to serve them on behalf of ordinary Americans and to ensure that our capital markets remain the best in the world.”
Following Gensler’s announcement, SEC Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga announced the news of his resignation last Friday. “Until my departure in January, I will be fully engaged in the ongoing work and activities of the Commission,” he – he said in a November 22 statement.
After Lizárraga and Gensler step down from their posts, the remaining SEC commissioners are Republicans Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda, as well as the only Democrat, Caroline Crenshaw. With Crenshaw’s term also coming to an end, the president-elect will now have more say than ever in the direction of the commission.
Trump, who recently launched his family’s cryptocurrency platform World Liberty Financial, has regularly promised to introduce a cryptocurrency-friendly regulatory framework when he returns to the Oval Office.
However, with a unified government at hand, Trump may be able to change the regulatory direction of cryptocurrency assets for generations.
