Paul Atkins was picked by Donald Trump in December 2024 as the replacement for Gary Gensler as U.S. SEC chair. Due to bureaucracy-related delays, Atkins has yet to begin work. However, a recently published financial disclosure ahead of his confirmation hearing reveals a notable detail, Atkins is an avid crypto investor.
Gensler’s tenure at the Securities and Exchange Commission was marked by an antagonistic approach toward crypto businesses. Many major companies were sued, and digital assets were broadly treated as unregistered securities, making it difficult for U.S. firms to engage with crypto without legal risks.
Trump vowed to make America the crypto capital of the world, and his pick for the SEC chair position was a strong crypto advocate and investor, Paul Atkins, who invests in crypto himself. He even testified in court as an expert witness on behalf of finance companies sued by the Gensler-era SEC. It took too long for Atkins to finally participate in the Senate Banking Committee hearing that should vote on his confirmation as the SEC chair.
Investments of Atkins
On March 25, 2025, financial disclosures revealed that Paul Atkins and his wife hold between $327 million and $588.8 million in total assets. The report provides value ranges rather than specific figures.
Roughly $6 million of their portfolio is tied to crypto investments. Atkins holds about $1 million in equity across two crypto firms and another $5 million in a crypto investment fund.
Until February, he held up to $500,000 in call options for BlackRock’s tokenization company Securitize, where he also served on the board of directors. He held a similar equity stake in Anchorage Digital. Atkins also had up to $5 million invested in Off the Chain Capital, where he was a limited partner. He has allegedly agreed to divest these holdings upon confirmation as SEC chair.
Elizabeth Warren’s letter
Atkins’ confirmation faces opposition from Senator Elizabeth Warren, a ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee and a vocal critic of cryptocurrencies.
Warrent sent a 32-page letter outlining questions Atkins would need to address during the hearing. She expressed concerns about his role at the SEC during the 2008 financial crisis, his advisory role at the collapsed FTX exchange, and potential conflicts of interest, citing his close ties with corporations advocating for deregulation.
She also criticized his recent role as CEO of Patomak Global Partners, a consulting firm that advised multiple companies regulated by the SEC under Gensler. Notably, Patomak had also consulted for FTX, whose collapse in 2022 helped catalyze the SEC’s aggressive stance under Gensler.
While Atkins has promised to divest his assets, Warren argued this was “not enough unless he agrees to disclose to Congress who the buyer will be and whether they are paying for access to the SEC chair.”
What to expect?
As both a pro-crypto advocate and an experienced financial insider, Atkins is seen as well-positioned to understand the crypto industry’s challenges. He is expected to continue the post-Gensler direction shaped by Hester Peirce, with the SEC already dropping several Gensler-era lawsuits against companies like Ripple, Coinbase, and Kraken.
More than that, the SEC ruled out that memetokens are not securities but collectables. It was an important change in the legal perception of crypto tokens. Atkins is expected to work on favorable crypto regulation that will facilitate the functioning of crypto companies. The Atkins’ January meeting with Sen. Lummis hints a crypto-friendly period of the SEC is about to begin. According to Lummis, Atkins will provide regulatory clarity to the digital asset industry “quickly.” Fortune quotes Atkins, saying, “The collapse of FTX was this international debacle because I think the U.S. didn’t make our rules accommodating to this new technology.”
However, on top of setting a clearer regulation framework for the crypto businesses, Atkins will have to follow Trump’s course on minimizing the number of officials, departing hundreds of the SEC workers. The SEC currently consists of around 5,000 employees, 10% of whom will have to leave the agency in the following weeks.
If confirmed, Atkins could lead the SEC toward a new era: one focused on regulatory clarity, innovation, and market growth, while reducing the agency’s size and operational footprint.
