The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to look a lot different than years past after the resignation of Chair Gary Gensler and a new boss rolls in. 

President-elect Donald Trump tapped crypto-friendly former regulator Paul Atkins to lead the SEC, citing his recognition that crypto and other innovations are "crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before" in a post on Truth Social in early December. 

Atkins was previously appointed by former President George W. Bush as an SEC commissioner from 2002 to 2008. Atkins also joined The Digital Chamber's board of advisers in 2020.

Atkins "truly understands crypto," said Alison Mangiero, executive director at the Proof of Stake Alliance, in an interview with The Block.

"We'll see an SEC that has clearly different priorities than that of the Gensler SEC," Mangiero said. 

At the end of November, Gensler and Democratic Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga both said they were stepping away from the SEC. This now leaves three Republican Commissioners — Mark Uyeda, Hester Peirce and soon-to-be Atkins — leading the SEC. 

"With there being three members from one political party, once the Senate confirms Paul Atkins, I think Democrats expect that he would nominate someone from a different political party relatively quickly, but this has to be weighed against the many other Presidential appointments that take priority," said Teresa Goody Guillén, partner at BakerHostetler law firm and former litigation counsel for the SEC, said in an interview. 

That new commissioner can't be Republican due to a statute that says no more than three commissioners can be in the same political party. However, they don't have to necessarily be Democrat either; they can be Libertarian, independent or any other party that's not Republican, she said. 

Gensler, who is set to leave the day of Trump's inauguration, had been criticized by some in the crypto industry for his "regulation by enforcement" approach. While at the agency, Gensler maintained that most cryptocurrencies qualify as securities and urged crypto firms to register with the SEC. Some in the crypto industry have fought back, saying that it's impossible to register with the agency, partly because rules were made for more traditional entities that are different from the digital asset industry.  

In the beginning of 2024, the SEC approved a slew of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds and later greenlit spot Ethereum ETFs. 

When working to get approval for spot Ethereum ETFs, firms proposed staking the underlying ETH in their funds to get revenue and pay out rewards to buyers. However, the SEC raised concerns, so firms took out that provision. 

Since then, multiple firms have been trying to get the SEC's approval for other crypto ETFs, including ones that track Solana and XRP. 

The SEC could decide to take a look at staking in crypto ETFs, POSA's Mangiero said. That could mean new products are launched that include staking or current products could be amended, she said.

"There is a lot of low-hanging fruit in things that this SEC could do in the first few months that would be a good sign," Mangiero said. "So for us, we've really been pushing on making sure that staking is something that can be offered in these products." 

The SEC has a few rulemakings on the books, including one that could potentially loop in the crypto industry called Regulation ATS. The SEC proposed the rule in 2022 and was reopened for comments in April. It would broaden the definition of an exchange and could ultimately require decentralized projects to register with the agency as alternative trading systems. 

If the current SEC doesn't adopt Regulation ATS ahead of Trump's inauguration, it's still up to the SEC on whether to move forward with that rule, said Miller Whitehouse-Levine, CEO of the DeFi Education Fund, in an interview. 

"I don't think they would finalize it in the same form that this commission would finalize it, or they could scrap it all together," Whitehouse-Levine said. "It just totally depends on what their priorities are." 

The SEC could decide to start the process on some rulemaking that is within its parameters while waiting for Congress to fill in the gaps, said Ron Hammond, director of government relations at the Blockchain Association. However, it's all unclear, he added.

If Atkins is confirmed, Goody Guillén anticipates the SEC bringing fewer cases against crypto firms in the new year. 

"There is expected to be less of the non-fraud cases where there is no investor loss," she said. "Also generally and similarly, I think we're going to see less novel cases." Those novel cases include ones that look to establish precedent, Goody Guillén added.

The SEC also can only bring cases if a security is involved, so if the action does not involve a security, the agency refers those bad actors to the Department of Justice and other regulators, such as the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, she said.

The DeFi Education Fund and Beba, a Texas apparel company, took the SEC to court last month over Administrative Procedure Act violations and asked the court to declare that their $BEBA token airdrop is not a security. The advocacy group is also involved in a lawsuit alongside 18 Republican attorneys general over the SEC's treatment of crypto. 

"Our plan is to sit tight and assess," Whitehouse-Levine said. "None of our plans have changed on that front."

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