Who are you, Mr. Paul Atkins?

As President-elect Donald Trump gears up to take office, the new administration is taking shape at lightning speed, with most key governing nominations pre-filled. This includes the position of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman. And the choice is very much delightful—at least from the crypto community’s point of view. 

Trump decided to tap Paul Atkins, a well-known crypto advocate who previously served on the Commission in various roles. This choice was received with great enthusiasm from the community, and Bitcoin crossed the $100,000 mark for the first time ever.

But who is exactly Paul Atkins? And what is his path toward becoming the chief of the SEC?

We decided to explore Atkin’s biography, trace the origin of his crypto support, and take a look at what’s next for the industry. 

Spoiler: some things are not as rosy as they may seem. 

Related: SEC Transit Gloria Mundi: Why Is Atkins Better Than Gensler?

Road to the SEC

Born in Lillington, North Carolina, and raised in Tampa, Florida, Atkins received his J.D. degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1983, where he served as Senior Student Writing Editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review.

His career took off in the 1980s when he began working at the white-glove Davis Polk & Wardwell law firm in New York City, focusing on corporate transactions, including securities offerings and mergers and acquisitions. From there, he was briefly transferred to Paris, France, and spent two and a half years there before being admitted to the judiciary council of France in 1988.

Enter the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission where Atkins began working in the 1990s.

While there, he served under Chairman Richard C. Breeden, appointed by POTUS George Bush, from 1989 until 1993, and Arthur Levitt, appointed by Bill Clinton in July 1993 and reappointed in May 1998.

While Atkins did not serve during Levitt’s second tenure that finished in 2001, he returned in 2002 when President George W. Bush began advocating for transparency and cost-benefit analysis in regulations.   

In 2009, following the departure from the SEC, Atkins founded Patomak Global Partners, a financial services consultancy and became its CEO. Drawing on his experience at the SEC, he has advised on regulatory compliance and served as an independent compliance consultant in federal settlements and remains the company’s head at the time of writing. 

Patomak Global Partners team/patomak.com

Entering the crypto craze  

Atkins was one of the early advocates of cryptocurrencies by non-crypto crowd standards as is apparent from his Patomak Global Partners list of expertise. 

The company mentions navigating new products and technology among its expertise areas, noting that it “Advised a large U.S. retailer on business strategies related to cryptocurrency, including presentations to senior executives” and “Advised a stablecoin project on its digital   

The company mentions navigating new products and technology among its expertise areas, noting that it “Advised a large U.S. retailer on business strategies related to cryptocurrency, including presentations to senior executives” and “Advised a stablecoin project on its digital asset distribution strategy, including advising on the project white paper and potential regulatory risks associated with the project's structure.”

After being appointed to President Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum in 2016 as an economic policy advisor, in 2017, Atkins co-chaired the Token Alliance, an initiative of the Chamber of Digital Commerce. 

Its goal is to promote “The acceptance and use of digital assets and blockchain-based technologies. Through education, advocacy and working closely with policy                               makers, regulatory agencies and industry, our goal is to develop an environment that fosters innovation, jobs and investment.”

The fact that the Alliance was created in 2017 is hardly coincidental as that very same year Bitcoin crossed the 20 thousand mark for the first time, drawing colossal attention from the general public, most of which had been oblivious to the coin’s existence. 

He has on numerous occasions emphasized the importance of accommodating non-criminal activities within the crypto space to enable market flourishing. He advocates for a regulatory environment that fosters innovation while ensuring investor protection. 

Enter the SEC for the second time and the then Chairman of the SEC Jay Clayton who served in the position during Trump’s first administration. 

Clayton’s approach to cryptocurrencies tends to be viewed as mixed but not entirely negative. 

In 2018, the now-infamous SEC Director of Corporate Finance, William Hinman, recognized that Ethereum was not a security, which greatly relieved the burgeoning community. That year crypto mom Hester M. Peirce was appointed by President Donald J. Trump to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and sworn in. 

William Hinman/SEC.gov

Related: Could Hinman's Documents Undermine SEC's Crypto Crackdown?

But this early enthusiasm did not apply to Ripple, the company against which Clayton, the SEC launched a court saga in 2020 that still hasn’t been concluded, despite the court revealing Hinman's files in a negative light. 

Clayton’s legacy, however, is nothing compared to that of his successor, Gary Gensler, who made it his ambition to stifle the industry as much as possible.

During his tenure, Gensler did everything in his power to put off the crypto community to the maximum, launching massive lawsuits against the crypto exchange behemoths Coinbase and Binance, which are still ongoing.

If Trump weren’t to win, Gensler would continue running the SEC until 2026. However, due to the power flip, he’s set to resign in January on a voluntary basis even though the President-elect pledged in his self-style to fire him “on day one.” 

Gary Gensler/X

Making America Greater than Ever Before

Atkins is nothing like his predecessor so it is hardly a surprise that Trump who has become a big crypto household name with the “crypto bros” supporting him on platforms like X, has decided to pick him for the position alongside other crypto-friendly figures like Robert Kennedy Jr. and billionaire investor Howard Lutnick as Commerce Secretary.

“Paul is a proven leader for common sense regulations,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “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. He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before.”

Donald Trump’s Atkins’ nomination announcement/Truth Social

Crypto mom Hester Peirce also reacted positively, writing on X that, “We have a lot of work to do at the SEC to advance free markets, capital formation, investor choice, and innovation. I'm delighted that Paul Atkins will be returning to lead the effort. Having worked for him during his last stint at the agency, I cannot think of a better person for the job.”

He “is the absolute right choice,” Chris Giancarlo, a former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, told Yahoo Finance, calling him “an advocate for blockchain and digital assets.”

What if he’s a snake?

At a glance everything seems rosy. But not so much if you factor in the Ripple case, launched by Clayton, who might become  Wall Street’s top cop, i.e. Manhattan’s attorney.

According to the New York Post, some people in the securities-bar ecosystem familiar with Atkins “who say the crypto business won’t get a complete regulatory free pass given Atkins’ core beliefs that the SEC is at its best when it functions as a consumer protection agency with a strong disclosure mandate.”

Furthermore, there’s no guarantee that he will drop the Ripple case, wherein the court found Ripple’s institutional sales violated securities laws, programmatic sales were not deemed illegal.

“I can’t see Atkins letting that court precedent stand,” said one securities lawyer who knows Atkins well. Accordingly, the New York Post concludes that if Atkins keeps the Ripple case going, the XRP exuberance will fizzle fast, and maybe the Bitcoin rally as well.

But it’s not just that. The reaction to Peirce’s tweet is likewise, surprisingly, mixed. One user who goes by the name of @stephmase22 wrote:   

@HesterPeirce I am so glad you didn't get the position. But you are right you do have a lot of work to do. We will have to see if Paul Atkins is a paid off snake just like @GaryGensler. If you like him I guess he is

Many attacks also pertain to the long-standing story pertaining to the META MATLS Pref Shs (MMTLP saga), the trading of which was stopped in 2023, leaving tens of thousands of shareholders questioning the future of their investments

Others were simply of the red tape in general, saying “The ‘work' you need to do is getting out of the way! That means reducing interference and regulation. As long as you are reducing your size and involvement all will get better. You won't solve ANY problems by creating more bureaucracy. The government doesn't offer solutions, only trade-offs.”

Without jumping to any conclusions, one thing that we’d like to note is that while researching and writing this article, the general feeling was that a lot of what we know about Atkins comes not so much from Atkins himself but rather from the people around him and his general crypto-sympathetic stance. There’s no doubt that he’s a much more crypto-friendly figure than Gary Gensler. But it’s also worth keeping in mind that Gensler wasn’t always against cryptocurrencies and only became so after taking the position. It’s unlikely that Atkins will undergo such a transformation but it’s also true that his admiration for XRP, for example, is rather reserved though he indirectly admits that the Howey test used to identify securities may need an update. 

To better understand what Atkins is like in the role and will actually do, we will have to wait until 20 January 2025 when Trump takes office.