One Year of Atkins at the Helm of the SEC: Loosened Enforcement, Accelerated ETF Approvals, and Lingering Controversies

Original Compilation: Shenchao TechFlow

Perkenalan: April 21, 2025, marked the day Paul Atkins was sworn in as SEC Chairman, exactly one year ago today. Over this year, the SEC has dismissed multiple lawsuits against kripto companies, approved several crypto ETFs, and signed a memorandum of understanding with the CFTC for digital asset regulatory coordination. However, accusations of conflicts of interest against Atkins by Democratic lawmakers are heating up, and the SEC is still awaiting Congress to pass market structure legislation to clarify its jurisdiction over crypto assets.

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

This year has seen a fundamental shift in the SEC’s regulatory and enforcement stance on digital assets, forming a stark contrast to the approach during the tenure of former Chairman Gary Gensler.

During the 2024 election campaign, Trump made several 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. SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda served as acting chairman until the Senate confirmed Atkins’ nomination.

Caption: SEC Chairman Paul Atkins interviewed on CNBC’s Squawk Box on April 20, 2026

Sumber: CNBC

The SEC Began Shifting Even Before Atkins Took Office

Signals of change began even before Atkins formally assumed the role. During Uyeda’s acting tenure, the SEC established a crypto working group led by Commissioner Hester Peirce. Starting in February 2025, the SEC began dismissing civil enforcement actions and investigations against crypto companies, with Coinbase being the first.

In the 12 months following Atkins’ official appointment, the SEC rolled out a series of policies widely viewed as favorable by the industry:

• Terminated multiple enforcement actions against crypto companies
• Approved several exchange-traded funds (ETFs) linked to various crypto assets
• Signed a memorandum of understanding with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for digital asset regulatory coordination
• Issued an interpretive notice clarifying that most cryptocurrencies do not constitute securities under federal law

Atkins himself stated in an April 21 interview with CNBC: “The year has gone by quickly, but I feel we’ve made significant progress. I promised a new day at the SEC when I took office, and we’ve delivered. We’ve moved away from the past practice of regulation by enforcement and opaque agency operations, and the crypto space is the best example of that.”

Sumber: CFTC Chairman Michael Selig

Democratic Lawmakers Focus Fire on Conflicts of Interest

While the crypto industry largely welcomes Atkins’ approach, criticism from Congressional Democrats is intensifying. The focus is on potential conflicts of interest, as some of the investigations and enforcement actions dismissed by the SEC involved companies linked to Trump and his family.

Last week, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren accused Atkins of misleading lawmakers during Congressional testimony. In an April 15 letter, Warren pointed out that the SEC’s own FY 2025 data showed the agency’s number of enforcement actions had dropped to its lowest in a decade.

Despite the clear direction of case dismissals and regulatory easing, the SEC is still awaiting Congress to pass market structure legislation to formally clarify the boundaries of its regulatory authority over crypto assets. Until such legislation is enacted, the SEC’s crypto regulatory framework remains in a transitional state of “administrative guidance + case-by-case handling.”

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