Paul Atkins has officially been sworn in as the 34th chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The April 21 announcement comes nearly two weeks after Atkins’ position was confirmed by the US Senate in a 52-44 vote on April 9. “I am honored by the trust and confidence President Trump and the Senate have placed in me to lead the SEC,” Atkins said in a statement. “As I return to the SEC, I am pleased to join with my fellow Commissioners and the agency’s dedicated professionals to advance its mission to facilitate capital formation; maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets; and protect investors.” Atkins is widely expected to lead a more crypto-friendly SEC than former chair Gary Gensler under the Biden administration. Atkins also previously served as an SEC commissioner between 2002 and 2008 under former President George W. Bush. His confirmation was reportedly delayed due to additional financial disclosures that he needed to file as a result of marrying into a billionaire family. Some of those financial disclosures reportedly revealed that Atkins owned up to $6 million worth of crypto-related investments, including crypto custody platform Anchorage Digital and blockchain tokenization platform Securitize. The announcement means Atkins has effectively taken over from acting chair Mark Uyeda, who has helped the SEC establish a Crypto Task Force to strengthen rapport between the agency and industry players over the last few months. The securities regulator has also dismissed several high-profile crypto-related investigations and enforcement actions undertaken by the Gensler-led SEC, including cases involving Coinbase, Consensys, Gemini and Uniswap. Related: Crypto industry is not experiencing regulatory capture — Attorney Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.
