Paul Atkins, founder and chief executive officer of Patomak Global Partners LLC, speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., on Monday, May 1, 2017.Â
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
President-elect Donald Trump, keeping with his promise for a crypto-friendly administration, plans to nominate former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins to head the agency, according to a Truth Social post.
Currently the CEO at Patomak Global Partners, Atkins is a well-known veteran of the financial world and Republican political circles specifically. He had been widely expected to get the position as the nation’s top financial market regulator.
If confirmed, Atkins would succeed Gary Gensler, a widely reviled figure in the digital currency community for his many efforts to clamp down on the $3.5 trillion crypto market. Trump has promised a easier path for bitcoin and its myriad peers, and the market has soared since his election victory on Nov. 5.
“Paul is a proven leader for common sense regulations. He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World,” Trump said in a statement. “He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before.”
Trump’s position on crypto mirrors his larger pro-deregulation stance prevalent during his first time in office.
Atkins served as SEC commissioner from 2002-08, under then-President George W. Bush. Before that, he also had served in other roles at the regulatory body in the division of corporate finance.
Along with adopting a pro-crypto stance, the prospective nominee was critical of some of the reforms that emerged from the global financial crisis in 2008. Specifically, he criticized the Dodd-Frank legislation as too burdensome on the banking industry.