Paul Atkins to be Senate-confirmed as SEC chairman on March 27

Paul Atkins will face the Senate Banking Committee on March 27 for his confirmation hearing to become the next chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a statement released by the committee on Thursday.

This hearing is happening in Washington, and if confirmed, Atkins would replace Mark Uyeda, who’s been holding the seat in an acting capacity since January.

Atkins previously served as an SEC commissioner from 2002 to 2008. After his time at the agency, he founded Patomak Global Partners, a consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. His return to the SEC comes at a time when the agency is already in the middle of major changes, many of which affect the crypto industry. If confirmed, Atkins is expected to pull back enforcement actions and make it easier for private companies to go public.

Senate to review crypto-related nominees alongside Atkins

The confirmation hearing won’t just be about Atkins. The Senate panel is also reviewing Jonathan Gould, a partner at Jones Day, who is being nominated to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Gould previously worked as chief counsel and senior deputy comptroller at the OCC before joining the law firm. The committee will also consider Luke Pettit, who has been nominated to be the assistant secretary for financial institutions at the U.S. Treasury Department.

The focus is mainly on Atkins because of the SEC’s new direction, especially when it comes to crypto. Acting chair Uyeda has already rolled out a number of changes this year while Atkins waits for confirmation. Since January, the SEC has dropped more than 10 crypto-enforcement cases, including ones involving Kraken, Gemini, Robinhood, and TRON. The agency has also ended litigation tied to climate-reporting rules and allowed companies to easily block shareholder proposals they don’t like.

Another big update came this week when the SEC stopped pursuing its appeal in the lawsuit against Ripple. The case has dragged on for four years and three months, according to Brad Garlinghouse, the company’s CEO. He said on Wednesday during the Digital Assets Summit in New York, “It’s been almost four years and about three months since the SEC originally sued us, certainly a painful journey in lots of ways.” He added, “I really deeply believed that we were going to be on the right side of the law and on the right side of history.”

Garlinghouse didn’t hold back. He told the crowd, “The system just feels broken. That we had to fight this fight for the industry and you had an SEC attacking the industry, particularly the Ripple case. There were no victims, there was no investor loss. They were just not acting in good faith.”

After the announcement, XRP spiked 10%, bringing the price to $2.49. This is the latest in a string of enforcement rollbacks by the SEC in 2025. None of the companies involved—Kraken, Gemini, Robinhood, or TRON—had to pay penalties in the dropped cases.

Also on Thursday, the SEC publicly confirmed that Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining does not fall under U.S. securities laws. That applies to activity on networks like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash. The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued a formal clarification saying that PoW mining doesn’t meet the Howey Test, meaning it’s not considered an investment contract and doesn’t require registration under the Securities Act.

The clarification only applies to public blockchain networks and only to mining-related activities. The commission stated that individuals and mining pools don’t need to register any transactions connected to mining. This move gives miners legal clarity for the first time and removes the fear of being hit with securities violations just for operating rigs.

This news came after the SEC confirmed that memecoins do not count as securities. That stance, combined with the dismissal of crypto-related enforcement cases and the latest confirmation on PoW mining, signals a full 180 on how the SEC is handling crypto under Uyeda—and potentially under Atkins, too.

If the Senate confirms Atkins, he’s expected to continue this path. That includes cutting back enforcement, making IPO approvals faster, and writing clear rules for crypto instead of just suing companies. Every action this year points to a lighter, rule-based approach, not the old strategy of regulation through lawsuits.

With Atkins’ background in financial consulting, his time at the SEC and the fact that he’s been a Bitcoin investor since 2011, he’s seen as someone who understands how the agency works from the inside. But this time, his job won’t be to keep it running. It’ll be to change it—and fast.

The Senate hearing on March 27 will determine whether that plan moves forward.

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