Update: April 22 at 12:35am UTC: This story has been updated to include more details of Paul Atkins being sworn in as the SEC’s chair.
Paul Atkins has officially been sworn in as the 34th chairman of the US 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,” said Atkins, who served as an SEC commissioner between 2002 and 2008.
“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.”
”Together we will work to ensure that the U.S. is the best and most secure place in the world to invest and do business.”
Atkins is widely expected to lead a more crypto-friendly SEC than former chair Gary Gensler under the Biden administration.
His confirmation was reportedly delayed due to several financial disclosures that he needed to file as a result of marrying into a billionaire family.
Some of those financial disclosures reportedly included up to $6 million worth of crypto-related investments, including crypto custody platform Anchorage Digital and blockchain tokenization platform Securitize.
Atkins has taken over from acting chair Mark Uyeda, who helped the SEC establish a Crypto Task Force in January, aimed at strengthening rapport between the commission and industry players.
The SEC has also dismissed several crypto probes and enforcement actions undertaken by the Gensler-led SEC in recent months, including cases involving Coinbase, Consensys, Gemini and Uniswap.
Related: Crypto industry is not experiencing regulatory capture — Attorney
The Atkins-led SEC currently has over 70 crypto-related exchange-traded fund applications to decide on this year, Bloomberg reported on April 21.
“Everything from XRP, Litecoin and Solana to Penguins, Doge and 2x Melania and everything in between,” Bloomberg ETF analyst James Balchunas said in an X post.
“Gonna be a wild year.”
The recent surge in crypto ETF filings reflects a “spaghetti cannon approach” from issuers testing which products the new SEC leadership might approve, fellow Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said in February.
“Issuers will try to launch many many different things and see what sticks,” Seyffart said.
Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered
