Why Paul Atkins confirmation as SEC chair is taking so long

Paul Atkins, Trump’s pick for SEC chair, is stuck in Senate limbo, and the crypto community wants answers now. “What’s the holdup?” we wonder. Well turns out it is a logjam of confirmation hearings. The Senate has nine cabinet members in line ahead of Atkins, and no one knows exactly when his turn will come.

His hearing before the Senate Banking Committee hasn’t even been scheduled. Until it is, nothing moves forward, and the full Senate vote remains out of reach. The wait is becoming a problem for Trump’s crypto-friendly agenda, which can’t hit full throttle without Atkins at the wheel.

Gary Gensler, former president Biden’s anti-crypto SEC chair, also had to wait, as he was nominated in January 2021 but didn’t get Senate confirmation until April. Jay Clayton, who served during Trump’s first term, wasn’t confirmed until May 2017, despite also being nominated in January that year. History is repeating itself, but this time, the stakes for the crypto industry are much higher.

Hester Peirce leads the SEC’s crypto reset amid delays

In the meantime, Hester Peirce is holding the line. Known as “Crypto Mom” in the community, Hester is now in charge of the SEC’s newly formed crypto task force, which is on a mission to repair the damage done under Gary’s leadership. 

“It took us a long time to get into this mess, and it is going to take us some time to get out of it,” Hester wrote. She is of course referring to the chaos left by Gensler, who spent much of his tenure suing major crypto firms instead of providing clear rules.

The former SEC chair repeatedly said that most digital assets qualified as securities, leaving companies guessing what would trigger a lawsuit. Hester criticized this “regulation by enforcement” approach, promising that the task force would take a different approach.

“The crypto road trip on which the newly announced crypto task force has embarked likewise should be more enjoyable and less risky than the crypto road trip the Commission has taken the industry on for the last decade,” Hester wrote.

President Trump campaigned on promises of deregulation, and he even launched his own Solana-based meme coin before taking office on Jan. 20. The very next day on Jan. 21, Trump signed an executive order for a digital asset stockpile.

Crypto’s hero, Wall Street’s hero

Meanwhile, on the other side, Wall Street’s waiting for a savior to breathe life back into the sluggish IPO market, and they think Atkins might be the guy. President Trump’s pick to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has investors hoping for fewer rules, fewer headaches, and a wave of new stock-market debuts.

Under Gary Gensler, bankers felt like they were drowning in regulations. Gary loved enforcement actions over there too and pushed for stricter rules on corporate disclosures, which Wall Street blamed for choking off IPOs.

Now, with Atkins—who served on the SEC under George W. Bush—potentially taking over, the industry is betting on a more business-friendly approach. If confirmed, Atkins is expected to review key banking regulations passed during the Biden era, potentially rolling back policies that companies view as obstacles to going public.

But even Atkins can’t fix everything. Wild stock market swings, like those seen in Trump’s first week back in office, make it tough for companies to pin down their valuations. IPOs hate uncertainty.

The bigger problem though is that many companies are staying private longer because they have access to insane amounts of private capital. On top of that, public listings come with expensive regulations and the risk of lawsuits. The Federal Reserve’s interest-rate hikes during the pandemic didn’t help either, slamming the brakes on new listings.

Acting SEC Chair Mark Uyeda admitted in January that some of the rules passed over the past four years have added burdens that could “negatively affect companies’ willingness to go public.” Atkins might be tasked with cleaning up that mess.

Atkins hasn’t laid out any concrete plans for the SEC yet, but some insiders are expecting his confirmation to happen this month. But even if he does get confirmed, he likely won’t step into the role until March. He has already pointed out key problems making public markets less attractive. “One is the cost of regulation and two, other things like the fear of litigation,” Atkins famously said in a 2017 Bloomberg TV interview.

Cryptopolitan Academy: FREE Web3 Resume Cheat Sheet - Download Now