The new chairman takes office for 48 hours, and the SEC becomes "encrypted dad"

Author:Ashley , BlockBeats

On April 10, 2025, the SEC welcomed its new chairman, Paul Atkins. The leader, nominated by President Trump and confirmed by the Senate by 52 to 44, stated that he would make the establishment of a digital asset regulatory framework a "priority" and promised to create a transparent SEC that widely absorbs the opinions of the industry and consumers, and completely change the closed and high-pressure regulatory style of the past. Paul Atkins quickly became the focus of attention in the crypto industry, with regulatory benefits continuing 48 hours of the beginning of his term. Gary Gensler, the chairman of the SEC, has revoked several crypto-related lawsuits during his term. The SEC issued a statement urging the issuance of cryptocurrencies to disclose detailed contents and personally guide the project party to issue coins. Such intensive actions have also made people curious: Is Trump's SEC going to be a "dad" in the crypto industry?

The new SEC chairman takes office as the "three fires" bring frequent

benefits

Paul Atkins is not the new face of SEC, but also an old crypto player. As early as 2002-2008, he served as a SEC specialist and accumulated extensive regulatory experience. He has since founded Patomak Global Partners to advise financial and digital asset companies including crypto exchanges and DeFi platforms. He has also led the crypto advocacy organization Token Alliance, which openly supports digital asset innovation. It was disclosed that he held crypto-related assets with his spouse for up to $6 million.

On April 9, 2025, the Senate confirmed the Atkins nomination with unanimous Republican vote, marking a significant shift in the SEC's enforcement-first style toward pro-market orientation. Gensler launched more than 100 crypto-related law enforcement actions during his tenure, emphasizing that most of the tokens fall under the jurisdiction of the Securities Law and is skeptical of the industry. Atkins advocates providing clear and feasible rules for digital assets through a principle-based regulatory framework. During a Senate Banking Committee hearing on March 28, he made it clear that digital assets are the SEC’s top priority this year, pledging to work with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Congress to fill regulatory gaps and unleash the U.S. global competitiveness in Bitcoin and blockchain finance.

Atkins succeeds Mark Uyeda, who has served as acting chairman since Gensler resigned in January. Under Trump's "crypto-friendly" administration, Uyeda's short term has paved the way for the SEC's transformation, such as revoking several crypto-related law enforcement cases and repealing internal rules that restrict crypto-asset custody of listed companies SAB 121. Atkins's takeover has accelerated the trend of regulatory loosening, and his term will end in June 2026, and may advance important changes in the crypto-regulatory policy framework for more than one year.

Atkins' "first fire" has pointed to the financial market, and Atkins's pro-market stance has injected a shot in the financialization of crypto assets. On April 10, the SEC approved options trading for spot Ethereum ETFs, a milestone that provides investors with more channels to participate. In addition, Atkins supports simplifying private equity market rules and proposes to define qualified investors by financial sophistication rather than net assets, which may further lower the threshold for crypto investment.

The "second fire" gives future regulatory guidance. On the second day of his tenure, the SEC issued a non-binding guidance, saying : "These issuances and registrations may involve issuer equity or debt securities related to networks, applications and/or crypto assets. These issuances and registrations may also involve crypto assets as part of or bound by the investment contract (such crypto assets are called "the subject crypto assets")." urging companies that issue or process tokens that may be considered securities to provide detailed disclosures, including business content, token roles, network development milestones, and the rights of token holders. While it is still not clear which cryptocurrencies belong to securities, it is based on the SEC's observations on existing companies' disclosures, trying to provide the industry with a clearer framework of reference. Such detailed "end-up guidance" can also reflect the SEC's transformation from "using penalty instead of management" to "using guidance instead of management". It hopes to reduce market uncertainty through communication and transparency, so that the industry will not be on the brink of danger, and can only be tested repeatedly.

The "third fire" melted the "difficult cases" that were frozen during Gary Gensler's tenure, and the SEC showed a more relaxed attitude towards past crypto litigation. On April 11, Helium network developer Nova Labs announced that the SEC has dropped allegations of its sale of unregistered securities. Previously, the SEC had filed lawsuits against Nova Labs’ three tokens - HNT, MOBILE and IoT. With Atkins taking office, the lawsuit quietly ended, setting a positive precedent for similar projects. On the same day, the SEC and Ripple also reached a settlement for a long-term lawsuit. The two parties filed a joint motion to suspend the appeal. Ripple paid a fine of $50 million and the remaining $75 million was returned to the company.

In addition, to promote regulatory clarity, the SEC Cryptocurrency Working Group plans to hold four public roundtables from April to June 2025, covering crypto trading, custody, asset tokenization and DeFi. Commissioner Hester Peirce called this a "spring sprint to crypto-clear" and marked the SEC's shift from confrontation to cooperation. The first meeting will focus on "Tailed regulation for crypto transactions" on April 11, and the subsequent meeting will explore the integration of traditional finance and blockchain, as well as the DeFi and the American spirit.

What other moves does "encrypted daddy" have?

Atkins' intensive actions after taking office are inseparable from the overall policy background of the Trump administration and are highly consistent with the cryptocurrency policy.

After Trump returned to the White House, his policies have been frequently relaxed. First of all, the approval of encryption ETFs has made impressive progress. ETF applications such as XRP and Solana, which were previously blocked by Gensler's tough attitude, have now received more relaxed review within the SEC. The industry expects that multiple ETFs will be approved in 2025, significantly improving market liquidity. Secondly, market makers such as Citadel Securities and Wintermute have returned to promote the comprehensive improvement of the market in dimensions such as liquidity, trading efficiency and regulatory compliance. At the same time, stablecoin legislation is also advancing rapidly. Trump has repeatedly publicly supported stablecoins to increase demand for US Treasury bonds, help the US dollar's digital hegemony, and consolidate the US dollar's global dominance. In April, the Senate Banking Committee passed the GENIUS Act, introduced by Republican Senator Bill Hagerty, to set licensing, reserves and disclosure requirements for stablecoin issuance, providing a lightweight regulatory framework. Atkins said the SEC will coordinate with the CFTC to clarify the securities and commodity attributes of stablecoins and support state-level regulatory exemptions for stablecoins with market capitalization of less than $10 billion, encouraging innovation.

Not only that, just today, Trump also signed a bill to abolish the IRS's brokerage rules on the DeFi platform and clear obstacles for the development of DeFi. The rules issued in 2024 once classified the DeFi platform as a broker and required it to submit tax forms for users, which aroused widespread dissatisfaction in the industry. Trump said when signing the bill that the rule "hinders American innovation" and "invades the privacy of ordinary Americans." This is the first cryptocurrency-related law signed by the Trump administration, and it can be seen again that from nominating pro-market SEC chairpersons to repealing restrictive rules, the Trump administration is working to create a relaxed environment for the digital asset industry, striving to build the United States into a global digital financial center.

Under Trump's leadership, the federal government seems to be forming a more relaxed crypto policy atmosphere, and the SEC seems to have shifted from a "regulatory iron fist" to a "crypto dad". With multiple crypto ETFs approved, years of lawsuits revoked, multiple market makers returning, and the rules for DeFi brokers are abolished, and the Trump administration is trying to stimulate industry growth by reducing regulatory barriers. However, this policy shift has also raised some concerns. Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized Atkins for being associated with Wall Street and FTX's advisers, believing that its background could undermine regulatory impartiality. Critics also believe that excessively loose regulation may lead to market chaos and even increase investors' risks.

We must not only strictly regulate market order, but also protect industry innovation and growth. In the future, it will take time to test whether this "crypto dad" can find a balance between innovation and protection and achieve the global status of the US digital asset market. It is foreseeable that with the support of the Trump administration, the SEC's encryption policy will continue to become the focus of global attention, and the future of the US digital asset market may be starting to write a new chapter from here.