Paul Atkins became the chairman of the SEC exactly one year ago on April 21, 2025. During that period, the organization has abandoned its aggressive stance from the era of Gary Gensler and has adopted a far more friendly attitude towards digital currencies.
This development is in line with the promises made during the previous election and has raised hopes in the crypto/blockchain community. During his campaign, Donald Trump pledged to remove Gensler, build a national Bitcoin (BTC$76,354) stockpile, and push back against any U.S. central bank digital currency.
After winning the November 2024 election, those commitments began taking shape. Gensler stepped down in January 2025, paving the way for Commissioner Mark Uyeda to serve as acting chair until the Senate confirmed Atkins as the new leader.
Paul Atkins Appointed SEC Chairman
Before Atkins was even installed in his new role, changes had begun to emerge. In his tenure, the SEC had established a task force for crypto assets under Commissioner Hester Peirce. The commission also decided to pull out from numerous enforcement activities and investigations relating to crypto firms, with Coinbase serving as one of its earliest cases in February 2025.
Your completely free resource hub designed to boost your knowledge of cryptocurrencies
The first year of Atkins’ leadership has seen multiple concrete measures being implemented, which many believe have been overdue for quite some time. The SEC has wrapped up numerous pending enforcement matters, approved multiple exchange-traded funds linked to various digital assets, and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to improve coordination on crypto oversight.
Perhaps most significantly, the agency issued an interpretive notice clarifying that most cryptocurrencies should not automatically be treated as securities under federal law. Atkins himself summed up the progress in a recent CNBC interview on Squawk Box.
“A year goes by quickly, but we’ve made huge progress,” he said.
“I promised a new day at the SEC when I came aboard, and we have. We’ve pivoted from the old practice of regulation through enforcement and the opaqueness of the agency, especially with crypto.”
The partnership with the CFTC and other efforts under “Project Crypto” signal a deliberate shift toward enabling responsible innovation while still protecting investors from dangerous actors. Many market participants appreciate the focus on tailored frameworks rather than one-size-fits-all enforcement.
Of course, not everyone is on board.
Some Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns about the pace and direction of these changes. For context, Democrats have inherently been against crypto.
Last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized the SEC for what she described as a sharp drop in overall enforcement actions during fiscal year 2025, the lowest level in more than a decade.
She questioned whether certain dropped investigations involving companies with ties to the Trump family pointed to potential conflicts of interest and accused Atkins of possibly misleading Congress in earlier testimony.
Atkins and his supporters counter that the agency is simply refocusing resources on genuine threats instead of pursuing broad, unpredictable actions against the crypto sector.
These regulators are confident that clear guidelines and adequate oversight will uphold integrity in the market and encourage participation.
From reducing heavy-handed methods to providing guidance and promoting cooperation among agencies, the regulator seems to have adopted a more balanced approach. While discussions will definitely rage on, particularly regarding enforcement numbers and political considerations, the general atmosphere seems to have changed for the better.
In light of all the above for those who watch digital currencies, the USA could be gearing up to be the destination of choice for blockchain innovation.
Will this momentum last? Only time will tell, but one thing is certain: it’s that under the tenure of Paul Atkins, things have taken a new direction.
