Bitcoin Surpasses $100K Mark with Paul Atkins’ Pick

Gary Gensler Replaced by Pro-crypto Paul Atkins

Paul Atkins New US SEC Chair: What Lies Ahead?

Paul Atkins is the new US SEC Chairman and will be replacing Gary Gensler on January 20, the same day Trump administration comes into effect.

Paul Atkins’ nomination as the new US SEC chair by Donald Trump is the new breaking news. While Trump is the new US President-elect, Atkins will be the next person to chair the United States Securities and Exchange Commission after Gary.  

In a post on the Truth Social Platform, Trump announced that Atkins is also a pro-crypto who has proved to be a leader for “common sense” regulations. Trump has shared the past experience of Atkins and justified why he ended up choosing Paul for the noteworthy position.

Paul Atkins: Background

Paul Atkins considers crypto market a must to make America greater than ever which makes his nomination bullish for the industry. Atkins has once spoken at a Cardano Summit that indicates his support for ADA. Furthermore, he’s had ties with the Reserve Rights (RSR) crypto project.

Paul Atkins has formerly served in the US SEC too, where he was the commissioner from 2002 to 2008 under George Bush’s administration. The current commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda have been his appointments of that time, and have served as counsels to his office then. This relationship also brings optimism for the crypto industry as hopes of a friendlier regulatory environment rise further.

Before Paul Atkins entered the queue of selects for the position, there were other names as well like Robinhood Chief Legal Officer (CLO) Dan Gallagher. However, Dan stepped out of the race clarifying his unwillingness to take the position.

Trump’s Pick Bullish for Crypto

The appointment has been applauded by many. It should be a delight for individuals like pro-XRP lawyer John Deaton as well as Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart. While the former has been endorsing Atkins for the job, the latter also seemed to support him when rumors of Donald’s choice surfaced. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has welcomed the news publicly, while Senator Cynthia Lummis has also backed Atkins.

The development seems to be highly bullish for the crypto market, as more and more highly-authoritative positions seem to be occupied by those who are pro-crypto. The market activity has already started reflecting the consequences with Bitcoin surpassing $100k mark.  

The Road Ahead

Paul Atkins will now have to make decisions regarding the pending crypto ETF applications, given asset managers’ signatures completed for XRP, Solana and Litecoin ETFs. The latest asset manager to file to offer a crypto ETF is Grayscale who seeks conversion of Grayscale Solana Trust to a Spot Solana ETF.