Connect with us

Economics

Trump plans to nominate Paul Atkins as SEC chair in crypto-friendly move

Published

on

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. 

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 his 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.

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. Prior to that, he also had served in other roles at the regulator 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.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

Economics

Checks and Balance newsletter: Of God and MAGA

Published

on

Charlotte Howard, our executive editor and New York bureau chief, unpacks the blurring of church and state among Donald Trump’s circle

Continue Reading

Economics

The Hudson is now so clean that everyone can eat from it

Published

on

Battery sashimi, anyone?

Continue Reading

Economics

Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon is a lethality-maxxing wasps’ nest

Published

on

America’s armed forces are supremely capable and roiled by infighting

Continue Reading

Trending