Trump taps crypto enthusiast Paul Atkins to lead the SEC and Gail Slater as the new tech antitrust cop By Elisabeth Buchwald and Brian Fung, CNN 3 minute read Updated 2:26 PM EST, Wed December 4, 2024 1 comment Paul Atkins, founder and chief executive officer of Patomak Global Partners LLC, speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., on Monday, May 1, 2017. Paul Atkins, founder and chief executive officer of Patomak Global Partners LLC, speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., on Monday, May 1, 2017. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images/File New York CNN — The crypto and tech communities finally have some clarity on who they’ll potentially answer to over the next four years. On the crypto front, President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Paul Atkins to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. He is expected to regulate cryptocurrencies like bitcoin with a lighter touch than Gary Gensler, who led the commission under the Biden administration. Atkins served as co-chairman of the crypto advocacy group Digital Chamber’s Token Alliance since 2017. “Paul is a proven leader for common sense regulations,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World. He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before.” On the tech front, Trump intends to nominate Gail Slater, a former Fox Corporation executive and economic policy adviser in the first Trump administration, to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust division as Assistant Attorney General.

welcome paul