Paul Atkins marked his first year as chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on April 21, 2026, overseeing a notable change in the agency’s approach to digital assets compared with the Gary Gensler era under the prior administration.
During the 2024 campaign President Trump pledged to remove Gensler, create a national Bitcoin reserve and oppose a U.S. central bank digital currency. After Trump’s November 2024 election win, Gensler resigned in January 2025. Commissioner Mark Uyeda served as acting chair until Atkins was confirmed.
Even before Atkins took office, the SEC signaled a shift in tone. Uyeda formed a crypto-focused task force led by Commissioner Hester Peirce, and the agency began winding down several civil enforcement actions and probes of crypto firms, starting with the termination of matters involving Coinbase in February 2025.
Over his first year, Atkins has overseen policies broadly viewed as more industry-friendly. The SEC has closed or dropped a number of enforcement matters, approved several exchange-traded funds tied to crypto assets, entered a memorandum of understanding with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to coordinate digital-asset oversight, and issued an interpretive notice indicating that most cryptocurrencies should not be treated as securities under federal securities laws.
Reflecting on the year in a CNBC interview, Atkins said, “A year goes by quickly, but we’ve made huge progress. I promised a new day at the SEC when I came aboard, and we have. We’ve pivoted from the old practice of regulation through enforcement and the opaqueness of the agency, as, for example, with crypto.”
The policy changes have drawn criticism from some Democrats, who have expressed concerns about potential conflicts of interest after investigations and enforcement actions tied to companies associated with President Trump and his family were dropped. Senator Elizabeth Warren has accused Atkins of possibly misleading Congress during his February testimony and pointed to SEC data showing the agency pursued fewer enforcement actions in fiscal 2025 than in any year of the previous decade.
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