Original Title: One year under Paul Atkins, SEC's crypto stance shows break with past

Original Author: Turner Wright, Cointelegraph
Original Translation: Deep Tide TechFlow

Deep Tide Overview: On April 21, 2025, Paul Atkins was sworn in as Chair of the SEC, exactly one year ago today. In this year, the SEC has withdrawn multiple lawsuits against crypto companies, approved several crypto ETFs, and signed a memorandum for regulatory coordination on digital assets with the CFTC. However, the SEC is still waiting for Congress to pass a market structure bill to clarify its jurisdiction over crypto assets.

On April 21, 2025, Paul Atkins was sworn in as Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Today marks exactly one year.

During this year, the SEC has undergone a fundamental shift in its regulatory and enforcement stance on digital assets, sharply contrasting with the approach of former Chair Gary Gensler.

During the 2024 election, Trump offered a few promises to the crypto industry: replacing Gensler, establishing a national Bitcoin (BTC) reserve, and opposing the issuance of a U.S. central bank digital currency. After winning the election in November 2024, Gensler resigned in January 2025, and SEC commissioner Mark Uyeda temporarily took over as chair until the Senate confirmed Atkins' nomination.

Caption: SEC Chair Paul Atkins interviewed on CNBC Squawk Box on April 20, 2026.

Before Atkins took office, the SEC was already pivoting

Before Atkins officially took office, during Uyeda's interim tenure, the SEC formed a crypto task force led by commissioner Hester Peirce and began withdrawing civil enforcement actions and investigations against crypto companies starting in February 2025, with Coinbase being the first.

In the 12 months following Atkins' official appointment, the SEC introduced a series of policies widely seen as favorable by the industry:

· Ended multiple enforcement actions against crypto companies

· Approved several ETFs linked to various crypto assets

· Signed a memorandum for regulatory coordination on digital assets with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)

· Issued clarifying notices stating that most cryptocurrencies do not constitute securities under federal law

Atkins himself said in an interview with CNBC on April 21, "A year has gone by quickly, but I feel we have made significant progress. I promised that a new day would come for the SEC when I took office, and we have delivered. We have moved away from the past approach of regulating through enforcement and obscured agency operations; the crypto sector is the best example."

Source: CFTC Chair Michael Selig

Democratic lawmakers focus their fire on conflicts of interest

The crypto industry mostly welcomes Atkins' approach, but criticism from Democratic lawmakers in Congress is escalating. The focus is on the fact that some of the investigations and enforcement actions withdrawn by the SEC involve companies linked to Trump and his family, presenting potential conflicts of interest.

Last week, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren accused Atkins of misleading lawmakers during his testimony in Congress. Warren pointed out in her letter dated April 15 that the SEC's own Fiscal Year 2025 data shows that the number of enforcement actions by the agency has dropped to the lowest level in the past decade.

Although the direction of withdrawing lawsuits and easing regulations is clear, the SEC is still waiting for Congress to pass a market structure bill to formally clarify its regulatory authority over crypto assets. Until the bill is enacted, the SEC's crypto regulatory framework remains in a "administrative guidance + individual case handling" transitional state.

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