Paul Atkins: What Trump's man thinks about crypto

Last Wednesday, the U.S. Senate named Paul Atkins as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Last Wednesday, the U.S. Senate named Paul Atkins as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). That gives the U.S. market regulator a new direction. The crypto world is hopeful about this appointment: Atkins is seen as former president Donald Trump’s ideal candidate to repair the often rocky relationship between regulators and the crypto industry. But who is Paul Atkins, the man whose nomination helped push Bitcoin over the $100,000 mark earlier this year? And what can we expect from his time in office? BTC-ECHO spoke with people in his inner circle.

A bridge-builder between regulation and practice

Within the crypto community, Atkins is viewed as the “dream solution” for the SEC chairmanship. After years of clashes between regulators and companies, he’s expected to rebuild the broken bridges. Patrick Gruhn, entrepreneur and former colleague of Atkins, is sure: “The relationship between the SEC and the American crypto industry will improve dramatically.”

According to Gruhn, Atkins stands out mainly for his practical experience, something many other regulation experts say they miss. Atkins has seen both sides of the coin: from 2002 to 2008 he was an SEC commissioner under President George W. Bush. He then moved to the private sector, founding Patomak Global Partners, a consulting firm that since 2018 has focused more on crypto-related issues. Exactly which clients the firm had remains unclear.

Still, his involvement in the sector is well documented. For example, Patomak worked for asset manager VanEck in 2019 on the launch of a Bitcoin Spot ETF, according to the American business publication Barron’s. And for the lobby group The Digital Chamber, Atkins led the “Token Alliance” since 2017, an initiative focused on token regulation.

He also played an advisory role at Swiss crypto company DigitalAssets DA AG – later sold to FTX. In the Free the People podcast he warned about U.S. regulations, which he says helped cause the global debacle around FTX’s collapse:

"The international drama around the FTX crash happened because the U.S. didn’t adapt its rules to this new technology."

A situation that many think will change under a new Trump administration.

Not everyone’s favorite

Yet Atkins isn’t without critics. His close ties to the crypto industry raise skepticism. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren even accused him of "corruption." Gruhn disagrees: “Imagine someone who’s never worked in a sector suddenly deciding its future. How could that person understand or solve complex problems?”

According to Gruhn, Atkins is after a balanced approach. He emphasizes that Atkins is tough on investor protection and won’t compromise. He proved it in the 1990s, when as a lawyer he helped uncover the then-largest Ponzi scheme in the U.S., with damages around a billion dollars.

Still, he wants to achieve that goal with less collateral damage than his predecessor Gary Gensler. For Atkins, it’s about clear rules for the sector and a more predictable regulator. A first signal in that direction is the SEC’s crypto task force created by interim chair Mark Uyeda. Atkins would like to carry this work forward.

The end of ‘regulation by enforcement’

The infamous “regulation by enforcement” approach, where the SEC fought a head-on battle with the crypto industry, seems to be in the past. Even before Atkins took office, investigations into major crypto firms were halted—most notably the expected settlement with Ripple.

Nevertheless, Atkins won’t be everyone’s favorite, says Gruhn. Especially anarcho-capitalists and extreme libertarians won’t be happy with all the rules he supports:

"He has to protect the interests of all investors and cannot take sides for a specific group, like the crypto industry. That would undermine his role."

What Atkins’ exact path will be remains to be seen. But he’s already teed up a preview:

"One of my top priorities will be creating a robust regulatory framework for digital assets."

This continues the course set under Uyeda. If he succeeds, Paul Atkins could become the face of a fundamental shift in American crypto policy.