Paul Atkins is about to find out exactly how heavy the crown is.

On Wednesday, the US Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission in a 52-to-44 vote.

A long-time Washington insider, Atkins has ties to the crypto industry and is expected to super-charge Trump’s drive to relax the nation’s crypto rules.

“I’ve seen how ambiguous and nonexistent regulation of digital assets create uncertainty in the market and inhibit innovation,” Atkins said at his confirmation hearing last month.

“A top priority of my chairmanship will be to work with my fellow commissioners and Congress to provide a firm regulatory foundation for digital assets through a rational, coherent, and principled approach.”

Industry representatives and allies — such as Senator Cynthia Lummis, the Blockchain Association, and Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal — welcomed Atkins’ confirmation.

High stakes

The stakes couldn’t be higher for the crypto industry.

Atkins, 67, takes the helm at a time when crypto regulation is in flux.

The SEC has axed former Chair Gary Gensler’s crackdown on the industry, and has dropped or postponed virtually every enforcement action against crypto companies like Binance, Ripple and Coinbase.

Elsewhere, Commissioner Hester “Crypto Mom” Peirce is leading a task force to formulate a fresh approach to digital assets.

To raise the stakes further, Atkins may even end up regulating his boss, President Trump’s, sprawling crypto empire.

The Trump-backed crypto venture World Liberty Financial has announced plans to release a stablecoin, and the company behind his Truth Social platform says it’s working with Crypto.com to develop crypto exchange-traded funds.

Those ETFs would come under the purview of the SEC. That puts Atkins in the unprecedented position of regulating the president’s businesses just as the agency formulates new rules for the industry.

Who is Paul Atkins?

This is not Atkins’ first rodeo.

A seasoned Beltway lawyer and originally a native of Tampa, Florida, Atkins first joined the SEC on the staff for former chairs Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt back in the 1990s.

He also served as an SEC commissioner between 2002 and 2008, often promoting deregulation of financial services.

Having left the agency, Atkins resurfaced as the founder of Patomak Global Partners, a business consultancy in Washington.

The role saw him prep private-equity businesses for compliance exams, and helped Chinese accounting firms avert a ban on doing business in the States, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Over most of the past two decades, he has established himself as a fixture in think tank symposia and policy forums, often continuing his campaign for more light-touch regulation.

For a Washington lawyer, he was also early to recognise the power of crypto.

Since 2017, he has served as the co-chair of the Token Alliance, part of lobby group The Chamber of Digital Commerce.

Patomak is also listed as a creditor in the FTX bankruptcy for a board-advisory consultancy agreement, dated January 2022, 10 months before Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire blew up, according to Bloomberg.

Atkins holds up to $6 million in crypto-related assets, according to Fortune.

While the crypto industry has welcomed Atkins, his background has also opened him up to criticism.

In March, Elizabeth Warren, the senator from Massachusetts who has a reputation as an anti-crypto firebrand, questioned Atkins’ ties to the crypto industry and to Wall Street in a 34-page letter.

Even so, even crypto critics like John Reed Stark, the former head of the agency’s internet enforcement unit who has worked alongside Atkins, holds the new SEC chair in high esteem.

“While I may disagree with his stances on the regulation of digital assets,” Stark posted on X, “Paul Atkins is an honourable individual and a steadfast patriot who, as the 32nd SEC chair, will lead with fairness, honesty, transparency, and accountability.”

Eric Johansson is Inside Solana’ News Editor. Got a tip? Email at eric@dlnews.com.