Paul Atkins’ first public event as chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was a Crypto Round Table on Friday. There, the new agency chief dedicated his first speech to assure the industry that he will continue to restructure securities policies to support innovation in digital assets.
Agents and the industry are awaiting Congress’ action to establish oversight of crypto market structures that could set up guardrails, and Atkins told the SEC’s Washington headquarters audience that regulators will work to provide a “rational and appropriate framework of purpose” for crypto.
However, in response to questions from Coindesk after his speech, Atkins showed that the agency might be able to act to some extent during this wait.
“It’s always good to have Congressional views. If there’s a law that supports what we’re doing, I think it’s even better,” Atkins said. “But there’s plenty of space to pilot under existing rules and laws.”
Atkins further thought that the concept of special purpose crypto broker dealerships, a small amount of registrations most prominently represented by the Prometheum, is very successful and needs to be reconsidered, and he said he would look into whether custodians need to change to “corresponding to crypto assets and blockchain technology.”
Atkins previously appeared at the White House at a time when the digital asset sector needed clarity in regulations, Trump made an appearance at the White House earlier this week at a time when it was engaging in clarity in regulations. However, Friday’s event at the SEC headquarters marks his first full-fledged engagement with the public.
Read more: Crypto Ally Paul Atkins pledged to replace Gary Gensler sec
The crypto sector has high hopes for Atkins, but his replacement for the past few months, Commissioner Mark Weda has already taken many critical actions to reverse the regulator’s previous cryptography unwillingness under former chairman Gary Gensler. As interim chairman, Weda reversed or bystander the many crypto policy efforts pursued under Gensler, waiving most of the industry-targeted regulatory enforcement measures.
Until now, industry expectations for Atkins’ leadership have been based on speculation rooted in the experience of advice and investment for digital asset companies, particularly as Senate confirmation hearings failed to explore cryptographic views.
Atkins served as an advisor to cryptographic entities such as digital chambers and as a board member of the tokenization company Securitize. His relationship with Chain Capital previously linked him to investment stocks in large crypto companies such as Digital Currency Group (DCG) and Kraken.
Friday’s Roundtable was the third in the agency’s series on crypto issues, this time focusing on industry custody. Crypto Custody was a particularly dangerous topic for agencies, and under Gensler’s reign, it sought to approve a policy that would allow investment advisors to place their clients’ digital assets only to certain eligible custodians. Gensler argued that the rule was intended to exclude most existing crypto platforms as appropriate custodians, but the efforts were put on ice.
Read more: US SEC’s acting chair walking back agency proposal for Crypto trading platform
Atkins was asked by reporters from an event by the sidelines about Trump’s own crypto interests and whether Trump’s Memecoin, $Trump will steal credibility from the White House on industry policy.
“I haven’t commented on any of these,” Atkins said.
Discover more from Earlybirds Invest
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
