How SEC Chair Paul Atkins Plans to Shape Digital Asset Regulation
In April 2025, Paul S. Atkins was sworn in because the thirty fourth Chair of the U.S. Securities and Change Fee (SEC), marking a big shift within the company’s stance towards digital assets. Nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate in a 52–44 vote, Atkins takes over from Gary Gensler with a mandate to recalibrate crypto regulation.
A former SEC Commissioner (2002–2008) recognized for advocating cost-benefit evaluation and market-friendly insurance policies, Atkins has publicly vowed to determine a “firm regulatory foundation for digital assets” via a “rational, coherent, and principled” method.
This represents a transparent break from the earlier administration’s technique of “regulation by enforcement,” which drew heavy criticism from the crypto {industry} for its aggressiveness and lack of clear guidelines.
Certainly, Coinbase’s chief authorized officer applauded Atkins’ appointment as “sorely wanted and can’t come a day too quickly”, reflecting the optimism amongst crypto stakeholders.
Atkins brings not solely regulatory experience but in addition direct involvement within the digital asset sector. He helped develop finest practices for the crypto {industry} in his post-SEC profession and even disclosed private investments of as much as $6 million in crypto-related belongings (together with stakes in a crypto custodian and a tokenization platform) throughout his affirmation.
Whereas this crypto-friendly background alerts an embrace of innovation, it has additionally raised eyebrows. Senator Elizabeth Warren described Atkins’ potential conflicts of curiosity as “breathtaking”, underscoring issues {that a} extra industry-sympathetic SEC may go too comfortable on investor safety.
Balancing these views, Atkins has promised to “return to the fundamentals” of the SEC’s mission – defending traders, making certain truthful markets, and facilitating capital formation – however with a contemporary technique for digital belongings.
Beneath, we study how Chair Atkins is anticipated to manage three key classes of rising belongings: non-fungible tokens (NFTs), gaming-related digital belongings, and tokenized real-world assets (RWA). We additionally distinction his method with that of former Chair Gensler, highlighting philosophical and strategic variations.
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) – From Crackdown to Readability
Gensler’s Crackdown: Beneath Gary Gensler, the SEC began scrutinizing NFTs as a possible car for unregistered securities choices. In 2023, the SEC introduced enforcement actions towards a number of NFT issuers – for instance, charging Los Angeles-based firm Impact Theory for a $30 million NFT sale that the SEC argued was primarily an funding contract (the agency had inspired consumers to view NFTs as an funding in its enterprise).
One other high-profile case concerned the “Stoner Cats” NFT undertaking, which was fined for elevating funds via NFT gross sales to fund an online collection, deemed by regulators as an unregistered securities providing.
Gensler’s SEC even probed main NFT marketplaces and creators; investigations into OpenSea (the biggest NFT buying and selling platform) and Yuga Labs (creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Membership NFTs) had been launched to find out if sure token gross sales certified as securities.
This aggressive posture despatched a chill via the nascent NFT {industry} – any token, even digital artwork or collectibles, that was marketed with an expectation of revenue may turn out to be an SEC goal.
Atkins’ Shift to Readability: The Atkins-led SEC is poised to take a extra nuanced and measured method to NFTs. Even earlier than Atkins took workplace, the Fee had begun quietly pulling again on some NFT enforcement.
In late 2024, the SEC withdrew sure lawsuits against NFT projects, selecting to order enforcement for under essentially the most egregious instances involving “clear guarantees of returns” or fraud (primarily, Ponzi-like NFT schemes).
Furthermore, in early 2025, the SEC dropped its probes into OpenSea and Yuga Labs, a transfer welcomed by the {industry} as an indication of reduction. Nonetheless, authorized consultants cautioned that this didn’t imply NFTs have a free go; whether or not an NFT is deemed a safety will “rely on how it’s offered,” i.e. the specifics of the transaction and the guarantees made to consumers.
In different phrases, an NFT purely functioning as a digital collectible or art work could fall exterior SEC purview, whereas one offered as an funding with an expectation of revenue may nonetheless be topic to securities regulation.
Atkins seems intent on drawing a clearer line between these two situations. He’s anticipated to prioritize steering over crackdown within the NFT area – offering the market with clearer standards for when an NFT is likely to be thought-about a safety (as an illustration, fractionalized NFTs or those who embody profit-sharing rights seemingly nonetheless set off SEC scrutiny).
This extra “rational and coherent” stance stands in stark distinction to the earlier method of casting a large internet. By focusing enforcement on outright scams and ponzi-like token schemes, Atkins’ SEC goals to foster a inventive NFT financial system whereas nonetheless policing fraud. Such an method aligns with the brand new Chair’s broader philosophy of not “predetermining financial winners and losers” via overzealous regulation.
It additionally heeds Commissioner Hester Peirce’s name for “clear and cheap boundaries of regulatory authority” in order that compliance is achieved through rulemaking relatively than courtroom battles. The approaching months might even see the SEC subject interpretive steering or perhaps a report on NFTs (analogous to its 2017 DAO Report), clarifying how securities legal guidelines apply on this area.
For NFT creators and marketplaces, Atkins’ tenure up to now alerts a extra open dialogue: the main target is on transparency and compliance methods going ahead, relatively than punishing previous gross sales that had been carried out in murky regulatory waters.
Gaming Tokens and Digital Property – Recognizing Utility vs. Hypothesis
Play-to-Earn or Pay-to-Play (by SEC guidelines)? Digital belongings in video video games and on-line worlds – together with in-game cryptocurrencies, tokens, and gaming NFTs – type one other frontier of regulation. Beneath the prior SEC regime, these belongings had been largely considered via the identical lens as different tokens.
Chair Gensler repeatedly asserted that the “overwhelming majority” of crypto tokens are securities, with “all digital belongings apart from Bitcoin” falling under SEC jurisdiction in his view. This uncompromising stance implied that even tokens primarily used for gameplay or digital items could possibly be deemed securities if, in substance, they concerned an funding scheme.
For instance, if a sport developer offered tokens to the general public to finance sport improvement (with guarantees that the tokens would rise in worth as the sport grew fashionable), the SEC would seemingly contemplate it an unregistered securities providing.
Beneath Gensler, the SEC didn’t carve out exceptions for “utility tokens” utilized in video games – as regulators typically famous, “merely calling a token a ‘utility’…doesn’t stop [it] from being a safety”. This lack of distinction sowed uncertainty for blockchain gaming corporations.
The truth is, by late 2024 the SEC had reportedly prolonged investigations into blockchain gaming corporations like Immutable (a platform for in-game NFTs and tokens), leaving all the Web3 gaming sector uncertain of what token actions may set off enforcement.
Atkins’ Degree-Up for Recreation Property: The brand new SEC management alerts a better recognition of the distinction between speculative crypto investments and real in-game utility belongings. A telling improvement got here in March 2025, when the SEC terminated its inquiry into Immutable and associated gaming initiatives, discovering no violations and opting to not pursue enforcement.
Immutable’s president, Robbie Ferguson, lauded this end result as bringing “regulatory readability to the Web3 gaming industry” and predicted it will “drive extra institutional funding” into blockchain video games. The choice means that regulators, beneath Atkins, concluded these gaming tokens weren’t getting used as funding contracts in follow.
It marks a notable shift to a extra permissive (or at the least, understanding) stance: if a token’s major perform is for use inside a sport ecosystem (for enjoying, buying and selling in-game gadgets, or rewarding gamers), and never marketed for profit-potential, the SEC is extra inclined to let or not it’s.
Shifting ahead, we anticipate Atkins will work to articulate clear pointers for gaming-related digital belongings. The aim is to make sure “utility tokens” get handled by their use-case, not simply by their identify. This might contain components like: whether or not the token is offered to traders or solely earned via gameplay, whether or not its worth is tied primarily to sport utility or speculative demand, and what guarantees (if any) are made to purchasers.
By partaking with the {industry} – as an illustration, via the SEC’s new Crypto Task Force and public roundtables – the company can refine its method in collaboration with sport builders. Certainly, one of many SEC’s spring 2025 roundtables focuses on “DeFi and the American Spirit”, a dialogue more likely to contact on decentralized gaming economies as properly.
Such dialogue-based governance is a far cry from the confrontational tone of prior years and aligns with Atkins’ intent to manage with the market relatively than towards it.
It’s value noting {that a} extra accommodative method doesn’t imply gaming tokens are utterly off the hook. Atkins’ SEC will nonetheless police schemes the place a “sport” is merely veneer for fundraising. Tasks that promote tokens with grand guarantees (“purchase our tokens now and revenue as our metaverse expands!”) will stay within the crosshairs as potential unregistered securities.
Nonetheless, bona fide gaming platforms integrating blockchain – assume play-to-earn games the place tokens reward gamers for participation – could discover a extra receptive regulator keen to offer no-action assurances or tailor-made guidelines. By acknowledging the utility side of those digital belongings, Atkins goals to keep away from stifling a burgeoning sector that merges tech innovation with leisure.
The broader influence is that corporations within the blockchain gaming area can function with much less concern of sudden enforcement, so long as they keep away from treating their gamers like passive traders. This balanced mindset may hold the U.S. as a aggressive hub for Web3 gaming improvement, whereas a inflexible Gensler-style method risked driving these initiatives abroad.
As one commentator put it, the SEC’s current flexibility is popping a possible “sport over” right into a “sport on” for the crypto gaming industry – albeit beneath cheap guardrails that Atkins believes can shield gamers and traders alike.
Tokenized Actual-World Property – Bridging Conventional Finance and Blockchain
The Promise and Peril of RWA: “Tokenized real-world assets” (typically abbreviated RWA) discuss with digital tokens that characterize possession of tangible or conventional monetary belongings – for instance, tokens representing shares of inventory, fractions of real estate, commodities, bonds, and even high quality artwork.
This idea holds transformative promise: by placing actual belongings on blockchains, buying and selling can turn out to be extra environment friendly and accessible 24/7, with doubtlessly better liquidity and transparency. Beneath Gary Gensler, the SEC’s stance on RWA was guarded. Gensler acknowledged that nothing about crypto expertise negates the necessity for investor safety– a tokenized inventory remains to be a inventory, and thus topic to securities legal guidelines.
His SEC didn’t actively oppose tokenization outright, however it offered no particular lodging for it both. In follow, that meant any agency providing tokenized securities needed to absolutely adjust to current registration, disclosure, and change laws.
The earlier Fee proposed broad guidelines (reminiscent of increasing the definition of “change” to seize crypto buying and selling platforms) which, if enacted, may have made buying and selling tokenized belongings on decentralized platforms unlawful with out broker-dealer registration.
This cautious method, critics argued, left the U.S. behind as different jurisdictions experimented with regulated tokenized bonds or funds. Safety token initiatives complained that Gensler’s SEC supplied little steering on how they might lawfully subject and commerce tokenized belongings past telling them to “are available and register” – a course of ill-suited for novel blockchain-based markets.
Atkins’ Embrace of Tokenization: Paul Atkins seems way more smitten by integrating blockchain into conventional finance. His personal monetary ties underscore this: previous to taking workplace, Atkins had board or fairness stakes in Securitize (a platform for tokenizing real-world belongings) and a fintech agency known as Pontoro. Whereas he has pledged to divest these holdings to keep away from conflicts, the perception he gained from them is more likely to inform the SEC’s coverage.
Observers notice that Atkins’ appointment “alerts a right away shift towards extra crypto-friendly regulation” and a push to “scale back limitations to capital and crypto markets”, according to the Trump administration’s aim of eliminating laws that stifle innovation. Within the context of RWA, this implies making a regulatory surroundings the place tokenization initiatives can flourish beneath clear guidelines.
Senator Cynthia Lummis, a number one crypto proponent, stated she expects Atkins will “work rapidly to offer regulatory certainty for the digital asset {industry}” – which would come with readability on tokenized shares, bonds, and different devices.
Early indicators of this route are evident. The SEC has scheduled a public roundtable in Could 2025 on “Asset Tokenization and Integration with Conventional Finance”, signaling that the company is actively in search of enter on how one can modernize guidelines to accommodate blockchain-based belongings. Moderately than shunning tokenization, the Fee beneath Atkins is exploring how one can harness it safely.
This might contain updating custody guidelines (so brokers can securely maintain tokenized securities), refining disclosure necessities for on-chain issuances, and coordinating with different regulators on points like settlement and market infrastructure.
The brand new Chair has additionally indicated help for legislative efforts to outline digital belongings in regulation. He could again the proposed “Digital Asset Market Construction Act,” which goals to delineate regulatory jurisdiction between the SEC and CFTC and make clear what counts as a safety token versus a commodity token. By decreasing regulatory overlap and uncertainty, such laws would immediately profit RWA initiatives.
Critically, Atkins’ SEC appears inclined to approve or at the least critically entertain progressive tokenized merchandise that had been stalled beneath Gensler. It now has 70+ crypto-related ETF purposes within the queue – starting from spot Bitcoin ETFs to extra unique crypto asset funds – and analysts describe issuers taking a “spaghetti cannon method” to see what the brand new regime may permit.
Exterior of ETFs, companies like Robinhood are “accelerating their push” into choices like tokenized equities, explicitly as a result of the regulatory local weather is “shifting in [their] favor” with Atkins on the helm. This palpable optimism means that tokenized shares or funds, as soon as almost taboo, may quickly hit U.S. markets via correct channels.
Even Wall Avenue giants are vocal – BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink has touted tokenization because the “way forward for markets,” and with an SEC chief now sympathetic to that imaginative and prescient, collaborations between conventional finance and crypto tech are anticipated to deepen.
After all, a truthful and important evaluation should notice that easing the trail for tokenization carries dangers. The SEC might want to make sure that investor protections (disclosures, antifraud provisions, and so forth.) stay sturdy on this new medium. Atkins has framed his mission as making the U.S. “the very best and most safe place on the planet to speculate and do enterprise”.
Thus, his method to RWAs will seemingly pair deregulation within the type of eradicating “pointless limitations to entry” with vigilance on core protections. We would see, for instance, streamlined approval for a blockchain-based securities change – however coupled with strict reporting requirements and oversight of that change’s operations. The web impact could possibly be a win-win: legit asset tokenization ventures get a inexperienced mild, whereas scams (e.g. sham “tokenized actual property” choices with no actual belongings behind them) nonetheless get shut down.
If profitable, Atkins’ technique may place the U.S. as a frontrunner within the tokenization of finance, unlocking capital and liquidity in new methods, a lot as his supporters predict.
From Gensler to Atkins: A Philosophical and Strategic Shift
The change in SEC management from Gary Gensler to Paul Atkins represents a tectonic shift in regulatory philosophy. Whereas each males profess the identical statutory mission, their interpretations and ways differ sharply:
Regulatory Philosophy: Gensler maintained that current securities legal guidelines are largely ample for crypto; he famously took the view that just about each digital asset (aside from Bitcoin) is a security by default. Beneath his tenure, the SEC for years declined to put in writing new crypto guidelines or definitions, insisting the {industry} “figured it out” on their very own at their peril.
In distinction, Atkins espouses a philosophy of engagement and replace. He acknowledges that the digital asset market wants a “regulatory basis” constructed on readability and modernized guidelines. Moderately than stretching 90-year-old legal guidelines to cowl each blockchain token, he favors working “with…Congress” to fill in gaps and explicitly “make clear the requirements for distinguishing between securities and non-securities tokens”.
Philosophically, Gensler was extra of a strict constructionist of securities regulation, whereas Atkins is extra of a reformer in search of to adapt the framework to up to date markets.
Enforcement vs. Steerage (Strategic Strategy): Beneath Gensler, the SEC’s major device was regulation by enforcement. The company introduced quite a few high-profile instances towards crypto exchanges (e.g. Coinbase, Binance), token issuers, lending platforms, and even NFT creators, typically with out accompanying steering or rulemaking.
This method, described by many within the {industry} as capricious and opaque, led to accusations that the SEC was successfully making coverage via lawsuits.
Atkins, against this, is pivoting in the direction of “dialogue-based governance”. Within the first months of 2025, the Fee (led first by Performing Chair Mark Uyeda and now Atkins) dropped or settled a number of crypto enforcement actions – some towards main corporations like Coinbase, ConsenSys, Gemini, and Uniswap had been reportedly halted or reassessed.
Concurrently, the SEC launched a Crypto Activity Pressure to liaise with {industry} and scheduled a number of public roundtables on crypto buying and selling, custody, DeFi, and tokenization. This technique suggests Atkins prefers to set coverage via consensus-building and clear guidelines, utilizing enforcement extra selectively (concentrating on fraud and egregious violations) relatively than as a blanket coverage instrument.
Tone on Innovation: Gensler’s tenure was characterised by a guarded, typically skeptical tone towards crypto innovation. He often highlighted the dangers of crypto – fraud, market volatility, investor hurt – and confirmed willingness to sacrifice some innovation so as to implement compliance. In follow, this meant many novel crypto merchandise (from lending yields to tokenized shares) had been stymied or pushed offshore resulting from regulatory concern or uncertainty.
In distinction, Atkins strikes a tone of certified optimism. He has “spoken favorably of blockchain expertise inside monetary programs” prior to now and alerts that the SEC shouldn’t impede the expansion of digital asset markets as long as core investor protections are met.
The brand new Chair’s mindset is summed up in a guideline from a current White Home directive: laws “shouldn’t predetermine financial winners and losers” nor “scale back competitors, entrepreneurship, and innovation”. In follow, Atkins’ SEC is extra seemingly to present the advantage of the doubt to innovators – permitting pilot applications, sandboxes, or exemptions to let new merchandise come to market beneath supervision – whereas Gensler’s SEC was extra more likely to say “no” first and ask questions later.
That stated, Atkins just isn’t an uncritical cheerleader: his promise to uphold the SEC’s investor safety mandate means outright speculative mania with out disclosure received’t get a free experience. It’s a extra balanced rhetoric: encouraging accountable innovation, versus Gensler’s emphasis on reining in irresponsible innovation.
Business and Political Reception: The divergent approaches have elicited very totally different responses. Business gamers, who typically felt antagonized by Gensler, have largely welcomed Atkins. As famous, crypto executives described his arrival as a “ray of hope” and U.S. corporations like Robinhood instantly started charting expanded crypto choices in expectation of a friendlier regime.
Beneath Gensler, some corporations confronted a selection of compliance puzzles or lawsuits – prompting lawsuits towards the SEC in return (Coinbase sued the SEC for lack of rulemaking, as an illustration) and resulting in courtroom battles that generally undercut Gensler’s claims (e.g. the partial courtroom victory for Ripple in 2023, the place a choose dominated XRP gross sales on exchanges weren’t securities by default).
Atkins goals to keep away from such deadlocks by addressing issues upfront and mending the SEC’s relationship with the sector. Politically, Gensler’s aggressive stance happy sure lawmakers (many Democrats, like Sen. Warren, praised his powerful enforcement), however drew ire from others (Republican lawmakers often accused him of overreach).
Atkins, as a Trump-appointed Republican, enjoys help from pro-crypto legislators who see him as an ally for smart guidelines. Nonetheless, he faces skepticism from staunch crypto critics who fear the SEC may turn out to be too lenient and even “captured” by the {industry}. Throughout his Senate listening to, Atkins acknowledged the “backlash” the SEC had incurred and known as some prior practices “disturbing,” vowing to “increase the Fee’s picture” and restore belief.
This means a need to be seen as truthful by the broad public – not only a crypto booster – as he navigates between fostering innovation and stopping abuse.
In sum, the place Gary Gensler noticed the crypto world largely as a Wild West to be tamed with the whip of enforcement, Paul Atkins sees a creating frontier that needs to be guided with a extra nuanced hand. Gensler leaned on Twentieth-century interpretations to manage Twenty first-century belongings, typically leading to adversarial showdowns; Atkins is inclined to replace the rulebook for the 2020s, in search of collaborative enter and solely drawing the road when obligatory.
This philosophical shift is already manifesting in day-to-day SEC coverage: fewer headline-grabbing lawsuits, extra engagement with {industry}, and a concerted effort to really write laws (or help laws) that handle digital belongings explicitly.
Whether or not one method is “higher” will finally be judged by outcomes – can Atkins’ SEC shield traders as successfully as Gensler’s did, whereas additionally fostering a more healthy surroundings for innovation? Early indications are promising, however solely time (and clever execution) will inform if this essential stability could be achieved.
Conclusion
As Paul Atkins assumes the reins of the SEC, the regulatory panorama for digital belongings is present process a cautious however consequential recalibration. Within the realms of NFTs, gaming tokens, and tokenized real-world belongings, Atkins’ message is certainly one of “rational” calibration relatively than blunt-force crackdown. He seems decided to attract clearer traces: distinguishing artwork and collectibles from funding contracts, distinguishing in-game economies from securities markets, and distinguishing real asset tokenization from illegal choices.
This nuanced method, backed by public statements and early coverage strikes, displays an optimism that sensible regulation can each shield traders and permit novel markets to thrive. It’s a departure from the prior chair’s philosophy that noticed almost each crypto innovation as a possible menace to be smothered beneath current regulation.
Atkins’ tenure remains to be in its infancy, and being “essential but truthful,” one should acknowledge the highway forward just isn’t with out hazards. By easing up on across-the-board enforcement, the SEC dangers making a grey zone – {industry} gamers should be cautious to not misread regulatory forbearance as a inexperienced mild for reckless habits.
As one authorized professional famous relating to the current enforcement pullbacks, the absence of energetic instances may depart the {industry} in a “vacuum” of uncertainty that solely formal steering or new legal guidelines can fill. Atkins might want to observe via on issuing that steering and supporting these new legal guidelines; in any other case, the readability he guarantees may stay patchy.
Furthermore, his pleasant stance will certainly be examined the second a serious fraud or market meltdown happens on his watch – the true measure of his method shall be how swiftly and decisively the SEC responds in such crises, proving that “crypto-friendly” doesn’t imply “fraud-friendly.”
Nonetheless, the strategic variations between Atkins and Gensler are stark and, many argue, refreshing. By realigning the SEC towards rulemaking, public engagement, and focused enforcement, Chair Atkins is charting a course that might make the U.S. a worldwide chief in accountable digital asset innovation.
Already, the change in tone has led to tangible shifts: beforehand reluctant corporations are increasing crypto choices domesticallythe-cfo.io, and worldwide observers see the U.S. regulatory stance softening after years of hostility. Atkins’ personal phrases upon being sworn in encapsulate the stability he strives for: “Collectively we are going to work to make sure that the U.S. is the very best and most safe place on the planet to speculate and do enterprise”.
Attaining “the very best” whereas sustaining “the safe” is not any straightforward activity – but when Atkins can present clear guidelines for NFTs, gaming belongings, and RWAs that legitimize these markets with out inviting abuse, he’ll certainly have engineered a pivotal regulatory evolution.
In evaluating the 2 eras – Gensler’s and Atkins’ – a good conclusion is that neither excessive enforcement nor whole laissez-faire is a viable long-term technique. The SEC’s credibility will depend on defending traders and fostering truthful, orderly markets. Gensler hammered the primary level, arguably on the expense of the second; Atkins is now tilting again towards the middle.
His early initiatives (dropping marginal instances, convening roundtables, articulating guiding ideas) have set a constructive tone. The approaching yr will reveal how this interprets into concrete coverage – be it new safe-harbor guidelines for tokens, approvals of long-pending crypto ETFs, or clearer definitions distinguishing a sport coin from a inventory.
The digital asset {industry} and its skeptics alike ought to keep engaged on this course of. A sustainable regulatory framework for digital belongings within the U.S. would require enter and compromise from either side of the aisle and either side of the crypto debate.
In steering that course of, Paul Atkins has positioned himself as a realistic referee, one who understands the sport however is unafraid to name fouls. His tenure gives a essential alternative to get crypto regulation proper – a chance solid in distinction to his predecessor’s path, and one which, if executed correctly, may gain advantage traders, innovators, and the markets at giant.
