Skip to content
October 16, 2025Cryptopolitan logoCryptopolitan

SEC Chair Paul Atkins is focusing on supporting innovation in the cryptocurrency sector

SEC Chair Paul Atkins stated that the agency is committed to fostering innovation in cryptocurrency as it sets new priorities for the ￰0￱ at DC Fintech Week, Atkins emphasized that the commission’s top priority is crypto and ￰1￱ commented, “We want to make sure that we build a strong framework to actually attract people back into the United States who may have fled, but then also be able to build a framework that makes sense for the future, so that innovation can thrive.” He quipped that the agency might even be called the “Securities and Innovation Commission.” Atkins still wants to pursue an “innovation exemption” Since stepping into the role in April, Atkins has diverged sharply from Gary Gensler’s crypto policy, which centered on enforcement actions and the belief that most tokens fell under securities law.

He’s become more open to showing support for digital ￰2￱ Wednesday, he said that distributed ledger technology is what excites him most about ￰3￱ had revealed in June that he had asked SEC staff to draft an “innovation exemption” to expedite the rollout of on-chain offerings, stating that he intends to finalize it before the end of the ￰4￱ on Wednesday, he mentioned he wanted to roll out new solutions like the “innovation exemption” and eventually create a “super app” linking all crypto-related ￰5￱ argued that firms shouldn’t have to register separately with each ￰6￱ in its second week, the government shutdown has largely sidelined the ￰7￱ agency is following an emergency operations plan after Congress failed to pass funding, leaving it with a very limited staff to handle urgent ￰8￱ its emergency plan, the SEC currently has just a handful of employees on duty to deal with critical situations, the agency ￰9￱ commission’s enforcement actions resulted in billions of dollars in fines for crypto agencies Under Gary Gensler, the SEC took 125 enforcement actions linked to crypto from 2021 to 2024, resulting in $6.05 billion in ￰10￱ supporters and a few members of Congress complained that the agency’s policy at the time stifled technological development and, based on legal precedents dating back to 1946, was inappropriate for use against ￰11￱ Trump administration issued a landmark policy reversal with its January 2025 executive order on digital financial ￰12￱ the change, Acting Chair Mark Uyeda and Chair Paul Atkins dismissed multiple enforcement actions against companies, including Coinbase and ￰13￱ SEC also nullified Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, which had, in effect, scared banks away from providing crypto ￰14￱ the shift has not been ￰15￱ recently found that the SEC’s information technology department had accidentally deleted nearly a year of text messages from Gensler’s phone, adding to questions about record-keeping and transparency under the Biden ￰16￱ deleted messages were reportedly related to discussions regarding crypto enforcement matters, including the Terraform case and a high-profile financial services settlement, which has put the SEC in a bind when fulfilling its FOI ￰17￱ has emphasized a more measured approach , promising to give businesses notice of technical violations rather than immediately resorting to aggressive enforcement. *:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))" dir="auto" data-turn-id="b8ee08b1-dfd9-4f0d-982f-5576bd8f75c3" data-testid="conversation-turn-2" data-scroll-anchor="true" data-turn="assistant"> The head of the top Wall Street watchdog, who was appointed this year as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission by US President Donald Trump, recently stated in Paris that the agency aims to remove crooks from the financial markets and protect investors.

“If you lie, cheat or steal your investors and steal their money like disgraced former financier Bernie Madoff, we’ll leave you naked, homeless, and without wheels,” Atkins said, quoting a sign posted in the office of his first SEC boss, Richard ￰18￱ up to $30,050 in trading rewards when you join Bybit today

Cryptopolitan logo
Cryptopolitan

Latest news and analysis from Cryptopolitan

Pundit: This is the Week Everything Changes for XRP. Here’s why

Pundit: This is the Week Everything Changes for XRP. Here’s why

Attention within the digital asset space has intensified as a crypto commentator, X Finance Bull, outlined what he believes may be one of the most consequential periods for XRP in recent years. With m...

TimesTabloid logoTimesTabloid
1 min
$25M crypto heist trial begins – Are Ethereum MEV bots illegal or just smart trading?

$25M crypto heist trial begins – Are Ethereum MEV bots illegal or just smart trading?

Despite their utility, MEV bots can be abused, and the trial will offer much-needed legal guidance....

AMB Crypto logoAMB Crypto
1 min
Binance Finalizes Gopax Acquisition After Two-Year Regulatory Delay

Binance Finalizes Gopax Acquisition After Two-Year Regulatory Delay

Binance has officially completed its acquisition of South Korean crypto exchange Gopax, marking its return to the country’s market after a two-year regulatory holdup. Key Takeaways: Binance has receiv...

cryptonews logocryptonews
1 min