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Former US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) member Paul Atkins is scheduled to appear before lawmakers in the Senate Banking Committee on March 27 as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to get the president’s picks into high-level government positions.<\/p>\n
Since US President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, the SEC, under the leadership of acting chair Mark Uyeda, has dropped several investigations and enforcement actions<\/a> against major crypto firms, many of which had been in court for months or years. Many analysts see the SEC’s recent actions as the administration acting on its campaign promises to the crypto industry, of which some figures donated directly to the then-presidential candidate or his inauguration fund after the Nov. 5 election.<\/p>\n The commission’s actions — which include declaring that memecoins aren’t securities<\/a> — also stand in stark contrast to its position under former chair Gary Gensler, leading many to speculate that the SEC under Trump will lead to a booming US crypto industry essentially free of regulatory scrutiny. <\/p>\n Atkins, whom Trump picked in December 2024 and officially nominated after taking office, received support from industry players<\/a> at Coinbase and Ripple, both of which had ongoing enforcement actions brought by the SEC. The cases have since been dropped.<\/p>\n Given the SEC’s seeming about-face on crypto enforcement and Trump’s potential conflicts of interest<\/a> with the industry — with ties to the crypto firm World Liberty Financial and the launch of his own memecoin — some lawmakers are likely to question Atkins’ views on digital assets at the confirmation hearing. <\/p>\n If confirmed by the Senate, Atkins could return to a soon-to-be entirely Republican-controlled SEC, with Democratic Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw expected to leave by 2026.<\/p>\n