Replace: April 22 at 12:35am UTC: This story has been up to date to incorporate extra particulars of Paul Atkins being sworn in because the SEC’s chair.
Paul Atkins has formally been sworn in because the thirty fourth chairman of the US Securities and Alternate Fee.
The April 21 announcement comes almost two weeks after Atkins’ place was confirmed by the US Senate in a 52-44 vote on April 9.
“I’m honored by the belief and confidence President Trump and the Senate have positioned in me to steer the SEC,” mentioned Atkins, who served as an SEC commissioner between 2002 and 2008.
“As I return to the SEC, I’m happy to affix with my fellow Commissioners and the company’s devoted professionals to advance its mission to facilitate capital formation; keep honest, orderly, and environment friendly markets; and shield traders.”
”Collectively we are going to work to make sure that the U.S. is one of the best and most safe place on this planet to speculate and do enterprise.”
Atkins is extensively anticipated to steer a extra crypto-friendly SEC than former chair Gary Gensler underneath the Biden administration.
His affirmation was reportedly delayed as a result of a number of financial disclosures that he wanted to file because of marrying right into a billionaire household.
A few of these monetary disclosures reportedly included as much as $6 million value of crypto-related investments, together with crypto custody platform Anchorage Digital and blockchain tokenization platform Securitize.
Atkins has taken over from performing chair Mark Uyeda, who helped the SEC set up a Crypto Task Force in January, geared toward strengthening rapport between the fee and trade gamers.
The SEC has additionally dismissed a number of crypto probes and enforcement actions undertaken by the Gensler-led SEC in latest months, together with instances involving Coinbase, Consensys, Gemini and Uniswap.
Associated: Crypto industry is not experiencing regulatory capture — Attorney
The Atkins-led SEC presently has over 70 crypto-related exchange-traded fund purposes to determine on this yr, Bloomberg reported on April 21.
“All the pieces from XRP, Litecoin and Solana to Penguins, Doge and 2x Melania and the whole lot in between,” Bloomberg ETF analyst James Balchunas said in an X submit.
“Gonna be a wild yr.”
The latest surge in crypto ETF filings displays a “spaghetti cannon strategy” from issuers testing which merchandise the new SEC leadership would possibly approve, fellow Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart mentioned in February.
“Issuers will attempt to launch many many alternative issues and see what sticks,” Seyffart mentioned.
Journal: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered
