After a management that hindered the lives of crypto companies, the new SEC president is a promise of turnaround for the sector.
Donald Trump was elected president of the United States relying, among other things, on the defense of the cryptocurrency market, promising a reserve of Bitcoin (BTC) and less bureaucracy for companies in the sector. But if he has the pen, it is another man who will truly have the power to revolutionize the future of digital currencies in the U.S.: Paul Atkins.
He was chosen to be the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – the regulatory body of the American financial market, analogous to our CVM in Brazil – and approved by the U.S. House and Senate. It has been the SEC's role to define, for example, which tokens are securities or the approval of crypto ETFs.
In recent years, this has been a complicated journey for digital asset enthusiasts, as the former head of the SEC, Gary Gensler, was not only critical of cryptocurrencies but also strongly acted to delay the sector's progress, creating hurdles for fund approvals, suing companies, and preventing regulations in favor of these assets from being created.
But everything is about to change with Atkins' arrival, who takes on the role with a completely opposite stance to his predecessor. The enthusiasm for him is such that when his name surfaced as a possibility last December, it was one of the factors that helped Bitcoin surpass $100,000 for the first time.
"In fact, the cryptocurrency industry sees the arrival of a potential strong ally regarding regulation. After all, Atkins' stance has always been more flexible towards financial innovations," says Beto Fernandes, an analyst at Foxbit.
Atkins previously served as a commissioner of the SEC during George W. Bush's administration and recently stated in a Senate session that one of his biggest concerns will be to provide "a solid regulatory foundation for digital assets, through a rational, coherent, and principle-based approach."
For Alex Thorn, an analyst at Galaxy Digital, under Atkins' leadership, the SEC "seems committed to promoting innovation while ensuring investor protection." "This new approach represents a much-needed course correction that could unlock meaningful capital formation and infrastructure development in the U.S.,” he stated in a report.
Atkins started his career as a lawyer in New York in the 1980s at David Polk & Wardwell LLP, later becoming a partner at PwC, leaving that position to join the SEC in 2002, where he stayed until 2012 in various roles. After that, he became an independent director and non-executive chairman of the board of BATS Global Markets. Today he is the CEO of Patomak Global Partners, a company he founded in 2009.
