Catenaa, Friday, March 21, 2025-The US Senate will hold a confirmation hearing for Paul Atkins, President Donald Trump’s nominee for chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), on March 27.
The hearing, led by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, will also include nominees Jonathan Gould for Comptroller of the Currency and Luke Pettit for Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.
Atkins, a long-time crypto advocate, was nominated in December to replace Gary Gensler, who stepped down on Jan. 20. The SEC has since been led by Acting Chair Mark Uyeda. Atkins previously served as an SEC commissioner from 2002 to 2008 under President George W. Bush.
His confirmation process faced delays due to financial disclosure reviews, reportedly complicated by his ties to a billionaire family. Atkins is the founder of Patomak Global Partners, a consulting firm that has served crypto exchanges and DeFi platforms. He also joined The Digital Chamber’s board of advisers in 2020.
The hearing comes as the SEC undergoes significant policy shifts, including rescinding controversial crypto accounting rules and dropping enforcement actions against major crypto firms such as Coinbase, OpenSea, XRP and UniSwap.
A Republican-led SEC task force, launched last month, is working on clarifying which digital assets qualify as securities.
The SEC also faces mounting pressure to review over 60 pending spot crypto ETF proposals, a key issue for the evolving regulatory landscape of digital assets.
