After being ratified by the Senate on April 9, Paul Atkins is preparing to lead the stage showing major changes in the management of his predecessor. At the time of writing this memo, the position of President No. 34 of the US Securities and Securities Commission (SEC) is officially retained.
In an official statement published on the SEC portal, regulatory experts said they paid tribute to the trust they had given to them by both President Donald Trump and the US Senate. uu. As he said, his mission is to “promote capital creation, maintain a fair, orderly and efficient market and protect investors.
Atkins will replace Mark Weda, who held the position in a tentative manner after Gary Gensler’s resignation on January 20th. It was announced due to changes in management Creating an agency’s cryptocurrency working groupthis is led by Commissioner Hester Perth.
Since the first few days, the lawyer has spoken to the community and has said that her team’s intentions Marks the distance from the administration he considers ambiguous and hostile to innovation.. In one of his first communiques, he emphasized that the new SEC not only respects the jurisdiction of other agencies, but also recognized that sound collaboration between different regulators was key to progress.
This message can be interpreted as a clear indication of the friction that existed between Gary Gensler’s SEC and the Raw Materials Futures Trade Commission (CFTC). The latter argued that most encrypted ones should be classified as commodities, but the SEC considered everything except Bitcoin to be of value.
As a result, the cryptocurrency working group is under Atkins’ direction. Atkins is expected to continue his turn towards a non-punitive posture. but, His appointment sparked controversy Because of its connection with the world of finance. And during his mission as SEC commissioner (2002-2008), the businessman supported a deregulation policy in which some experts linking the origins of the 2008 economic crisis had left the agency and then established Patomak Global Partners, which advised several signatures in the industry, including FTX. These links raised concerns about the potential conflict of interest and whether the approach would support the industry in eroding investor protection.
While Bitcoin’s interest has continued to grow in recent years, it is worth clarifying that the SEC faces a set of more general challenges and priorities in the digital currency space. Atkins, who was already a commissioner during the government of George W. Bush; It is recognized as a regulator with a temperament to promote more balanced and rational policies..
Among the priorities currently facing the SEC are reviews of over 70 requests for cryptographically linked cited funds (ETFs). Atkins should accelerate its assessment of these proposals to meet the growing demand for both institutional and retail investors. On this former territory of Wall Street, Agents can stop being an obstacle to becoming an ally in the sector…If we can implement a less aggressive regulatory approach than Gensler, we can create a more advantageous environment that attracts more cryptocurrency companies to the US.
but, Atkins must also address regulatory tensions at the state level that could complicate its objectives.. A recent example is a lawsuit filed by the Oregon Attorney General against Coinbase on April 18th, alleging that multiple encrypted items were provided as unregistered value. The case ignores precedents such as the 2023 ruling that XRP found to be not worth public sales, and has been criticized as an attempt to regulate each case.
So far, the SEC has removed multiple ongoing lawsuits, including cases such as Ripple, Coinbase, Robinhood, Kraken, and Yuga Labs. The community hopes this course will continue. A clearer vision for the application of securities laws to cryptocurrencies. In fact, it is known that the SEC plans to organize rounder tables to discuss key issues such as cryptographically active custody and traditional asset tokenization. The aim is to more accurately define which values should be considered and how they can be registered according to current regulations, and thus reduce the ambiguity that innovation has ceased in the sector.
The latter could contribute to shaping an environment that follows the words “Ai Tsar and Cryptocurrencies” that SO called, like David Sacks, who said investors needed a clear definition. Meanwhile, it is useful to keep an eye on the table and remember that Gensler also had all the tools to achieve great advancements. His results were far from what the community expected..
