Senate Banking Committee Advances Trump's SEC Chair Pick Paul Atkins

Paul Atkins, President Trump’s nominee to become the next Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, passed a key vote from the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Thursday.

Following the 13-11 vote, in which all Democrats on the Committee opposed Trump’s pick, Atkins’ nomination will now proceed to the Senate floor for a full vote.

Atkins is an SEC veteran who previously served as an agency commissioner under President George W. Bush. He is widely expected to institute favorable policies for the crypto industry.

Last week, during a confirmation hearing before the Senate, Atkins declared that creating a “regulatory foundation for digital assets” will be a top priority of his chairmanship.

Notably, several Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee who previously embraced crypto legislation opposed Atkins’ nomination on Thursday. Just last month, five of those Democrats voted to advance the GENIUS Act, a bill that would create a regulatory framework for issuing stablecoins in the United States.

Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), a co-sponsor of that legislation, opposed Atkins’ nomination today. So did Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), the top Democrat on the Senate’s new Digital Assets Subcommittee.

The vote may have come down to more than crypto. In recent weeks, Democratic lawmakers have come under fire from hometown constituencies who feel they have not done enough to block the quickly accelerating moves of the second Trump administration. A vote to advance one of the president’s most consequential appointees could have invited such criticism.

In Atkins’ absence, though, the SEC has nonetheless been moving at breakneck speed to upend financial regulation—particularly when it comes to crypto.

Though the Commission is currently operating with just three voting members, as opposed to the full five, Acting Chair Mark Uyeda and Commissioner Hester Peirce, both Republicans, have instituted numerous policies favorable to the crypto industry. They have already issued statements effectively exempting meme coins and crypto mining from securities regulation, and are poised to carve out additional sectors of the industry.

In the same period, the Commission has also moved to dismiss almost every single one of its major lawsuits and investigations against American crypto companies and projects—most of which were filed during the Biden administration.

Edited by Andrew Hayward