WASHINGTON 鈥 President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he intends to nominate cryptocurrency advocate Paul Atkins to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Trump said Atkins, the CEO of Patomak Partners and a former SEC commissioner, was a 鈥減roven leader for common sense regulations.鈥 In the years since leaving the SEC, Atkins has made the case against too much market regulation.
鈥淗e believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World. He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before,鈥 Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The commission oversees U.S. securities markets and investments and is currently led by Gary Gensler, who has been leading the U.S. government鈥檚 crackdown on the crypto industry. Gensler, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, announced last month that he would step down from his post on the day Trump is inaugurated: Jan. 20, 2025.
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Trump, once a crypto skeptic, pledged to make the U.S. 鈥渢he crypto capital of the planet鈥 and create a 鈥渟trategic reserve鈥 of bitcoin. Money poured into crypto assets since he won.
The value of bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, passed $100,000 Wednesday. And shares in crypto platform Coinbase have surged more than 70% since the election.
Atkins' appointment was only the first in a flurry of announcements that Trump made on Wednesday as his presidential transition faced controversy over聽, Trump鈥檚 choice for Pentagon chief. Hegseth faces allegations of sexual misconduct, excessive drinking and financial mismanagement, and Trump considered replacing him with another potential nominee.
In addition, Trump announced the selections of former Rep. Billy Long of Missouri as IRS commissioner; financial technology company Fiserv聽CEO聽Frank Bisignano as Social Security Administration commissioner; former Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia to lead the Small Business Administration; Daniel Driscoll, an Army veteran who was a senior adviser to Vice President-elect JD Vance, as Army secretary;聽, a tech billionaire who conducted the first private spacewalk on Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket, as聽; and Adam Boehler, a lead negotiator on the Abraham Accords team, as special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.
聽Also Wednesday, Trump announced Former White House adviser聽, who served prison time related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, will return to serve in聽the president-elect's聽second administration.
Navarro was聽聽for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the Capitol attack. Sentenced to four months in prison, he described his conviction as the 鈥減artisan weaponization of the judicial system.鈥
Navarro, a trade adviser during Trump鈥檚 first term, will be a senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, Trump said on Truth Social. The position, Trump wrote, 鈥渓everages Peter鈥檚 broad range of White House experience, while harnessing his extensive Policy analytic and Media skills.鈥
As he works to fill out his team, Trump also said he would change his choice for White House counsel. He said his original pick, William McGinley, will work with the Department of Government Efficiency, which will be run by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy with the goal of cutting federal spending. Now David Warrington, who worked as Trump鈥檚 personal lawyer and a lawyer for his campaign, will serve as White House counsel.

FILE - Paul Atkins, a former SEC Commissioner and current CEO of Patomak Partners, arrives at Trump Tower, Nov. 28, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File)
Atkins began his career as a lawyer and has a long history working in the financial markets sector, both in government and private practice. In the 1990s, he worked on the staffs of two former SEC chairmen, Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt.
His work as an SEC commissioner started in 2002, a time when the fallout from corporate scandals at Enron and WorldCom had turned up the heat on Wall Street and its government regulators.
Atkins was widely considered the most conservative member of the SEC during his tenure at the agency and known to have a strong free-market bent. As a commissioner, he called for greater transparency in and analysis of the costs and benefits of new SEC rules.
He also emphasized investor education and increased enforcement efforts against those who steal from investors over the internet, manipulate markets, engage in Ponzi schemes and other types of fraud.
At the same time, Atkins objected to stiff penalties imposed on companies accused of fraudulent conduct, contending that they did not deter crime. He caused a stir in the summer of 2006 when he said the practice of granting stock options to executives before the disclosure of news that was certain to increase the share price did not constitute insider trading.
Atkins already has some experience working for Trump. During Trump's first term, Atkins was a member of the President鈥檚 Strategic and Policy Forum, an advisory group of more than a dozen CEOs and business leaders who offered input on how to create jobs and speed economic growth.
In 2017, Atkins joined the Token Alliance, a cryptocurrency advocacy organization.
Crypto industry players welcomed Trump鈥檚 victory in the hopes that he would push through legislative and regulatory changes that they鈥檝e long lobbied for.
Trump himself launched World Liberty Financial, a new venture with family members to trade cryptocurrencies.
Here are people Trump picked for key positions
Pam Bondi, Attorney General

Trump tapped Pam Bondi, 59, to be attorney general after U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration.
She was Florida's first female attorney general, serving between 2011 and 2019. She also was on Trump鈥檚 legal team during his first impeachment trial in 2020.
Considered a loyalist, she served as part of a Trump-allied outside group that helped lay the groundwork for his future administration called the America First Policy Institute.
Bondi was among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his hush money criminal trial in New York that ended in May with a conviction on 34 felony counts. A fierce defender of Trump, she also frequently appears on Fox News and has been a critic of the criminal cases against him.
Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary

Scott Bessent, 62, is a former George Soros money manager and an advocate for deficit reduction.
He's the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, after having worked on-and-off for Soros Fund Management since 1991. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the nation鈥檚 first openly gay treasury secretary.
He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join Trump鈥檚 campaign in part to attack the mounting U.S. national debt. That would include slashing government programs and other spending.
鈥淭his election cycle is the last chance for the U.S. to grow our way out of this mountain of debt without becoming a sort of European-style socialist democracy,鈥 he said then.
Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Labor Secretary

Oregon Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer narrowly lost her reelection bid this month, but received strong backing from union members in her district.
As a potential labor secretary, she would oversee the Labor Department鈥檚 workforce, its budget and put forth priorities that impact workers鈥 wages, health and safety, ability to unionize, and employer鈥檚 rights to fire employers, among other responsibilities.
Chavez-DeRemer is one of few House Republicans to endorse the 鈥淧rotecting the Right to Organize鈥 or PRO Act would allow more workers to conduct organizing campaigns and would add penalties for companies that violate workers鈥 rights. The act would also weaken 鈥渞ight-to-work鈥 laws that allow employees in more than half the states to avoid participating in or paying dues to unions that represent workers at their places of employment.
Scott Turner, Housing and Urban Development

Scott Turner is a former NFL player and White House aide. He ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump鈥檚 first term in office. Trump, in a statement, credited Turner, the highest-ranking Black person he鈥檚 yet selected for his administration, with 鈥渉elping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country鈥檚 most distressed communities.鈥
Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture

President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that he will nominate former White House aide Brooke Rollins聽to be his agriculture secretary.
Kash Patel, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director

Kash聽Patel spent several years as a Justice Department prosecutor before catching the Trump administration鈥檚 attention as a staffer on Capitol Hill who helped investigate the Russia probe.
Patel called for dramatically reducing the agency鈥檚 footprint, a perspective that sets him apart from earlier directors who sought additional resources for the bureau. Though the Justice Department in 2021聽聽during leak investigations, Patel said he intends to aggressively hunt down government officials who leak information to reporters.
Paul Atkins, Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission

Trump said Atkins, the CEO of Patomak Partners and a former SEC commissioner, was a 鈥減roven leader for common sense regulations.鈥 In the years since leaving the SEC, Atkins has made the case against too much market regulation.
鈥淗e believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World. He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before,鈥 Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The commission oversees U.S. securities markets and investments and is currently led by Gary Gensler, who has been leading the U.S. government鈥檚 crackdown on the crypto industry. Gensler, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, announced last month that he would be stepping down from his post on the day that Trump is inaugurated 鈥 Jan. 20, 2025.
Atkins began his career as a lawyer and has a long history working in the financial markets sector, both in government and private practice. In the 1990s, he worked on the staffs of two former SEC chairmen, Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt.
Jared Isaacman, NASA Administrator

Jared聽Isaacman, 41, is a聽聽who bought a series of spaceflights from Elon Musk鈥檚 SpaceX and conducted the聽. He is the founder and CEO of a card-processing company and has collaborated closely with Musk ever since buying his first chartered SpaceX flight. He took contest winners on that 2021 trip and followed it in September with a mission where he briefly popped out the hatch to test SpaceX鈥檚 new spacewalking suits.
David Perdue, Ambassador to China

President-elect Donald Trump tapped former Sen. David Perdue of Georgia to be ambassador to China, saying in a social media post that the former CEO 鈥渂rings valuable expertise to help build our relationship with China.鈥澛
聽four years ago and ran unsuccessfully in a primary against Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.聽Perdue pushed Trump's debunked lies about electoral fraud during his failed bid for governor.
Kimberly Guilfoyle, Ambassador to Greece

Guilfoyle is a former California prosecutor and television news personality who led the fundraising for Trump's 2020 campaign and became engaged to Don Jr. in 2020. Trump called her 鈥渁 close friend and ally鈥 and praised her 鈥渟harp intellect make her supremely qualified.鈥 Guilfoyle was on stage with the family on election night.
鈥淚 am so proud of Kimberly. She loves America and she always has wanted to serve the country as an Ambassador. She will be an amazing leader for America First,鈥 Don Jr. posted.
The ambassador positions must be approved by the U.S. Senate.
Guilfoyle said in a social media post that she was 鈥渉onored to accept President Trump鈥檚 nomination to serve as the next Ambassador to Greece and I look forward to earning the support of the U.S. Senate.鈥
Keith Kellogg, Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia

Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate Gen. Keith Kellogg to serve as assistant to the president and special envoy for Ukraine and Russia.
Kellogg, a retired Army lieutenant general who has long been Trump鈥檚 top adviser on defense issues, served as National Security Advisor to Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence.
For the America First Policy Institute, one of several groups formed after Trump left office to help lay the groundwork for the next Republican administration, Kellogg in April wrote that 鈥渂ringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.鈥
(AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Rodney Scott, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner

Customs and Border Protection, with its roughly 60,000 employees, falls under the Department of Homeland Security. It includes the Border Patrol, which Rodney Scott led during Trump's first term, and is essentially responsible for protecting the country's borders while facilitating trade and travel.
Scott comes to the job firmly from the Border Patrol side of the house. He became an agent in 1992 and spent much of his career in San Diego. When he was appointed head of the border agency in January 2020, he enthusiastically embraced Trump's policies.
After being forced out under the Biden administration, Scott has been a vocal supporter of Trump's hard-line immigration agenda. He appeared frequently on Fox News and testified in Congress. He's also a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Billy Long, Internal Revenue Service commissioner

Former Rep. Billy Long represented Missouri in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2023. Since leaving Congress, Trump said, Long 鈥渉as worked as a Business and Tax advisor, helping Small Businesses navigate the complexities of complying with the IRS Rules and Regulations.鈥
Kelly Loeffler, Small Business Administration administrator

Former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler was appointed in January 2020 by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and then lost a runoff election a year later. She started a conservative voter registration organization and dived into GOP fundraising, becoming one of the top individual donors and bundlers to Trump鈥檚 2024 comeback campaign.
Even before nominating her for agriculture secretary, the president-elect already had tapped Loeffler as co-chair of his inaugural committee.
Russell Vought, Office of Management and Budget

Russell Vought held the position during Trump鈥檚 first presidency.
After Trump鈥檚 initial term ended, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a think tank that describes its mission as 鈥渞enew a consensus of America as a nation under God.鈥
Vought was closely involved with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump鈥檚 second term that he tried to distance himself from during the campaign.
Vought has also previously worked as the executive and budget director for the Republican Study Committee, a caucus for conservative House Republicans. He also worked at Heritage Action, the political group tied to The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Kari Lake, Voice of America

Trump says he鈥檚 picking Kari Lake as director of Voice of America, installing a staunch loyalist who ran unsuccessfully for Arizona governor and a Senate seat to head the congressionally funded broadcaster that provides independent news reporting around the world.聽
Lake endeared herself to Trump through her dogmatic commitment to the falsehood that both she and Trump were the victims of election fraud. She has never acknowledged losing the gubernatorial race and called herself the 鈥渓awful governor鈥 in her 2023 book, 鈥淯nafraid: Just Getting Started.鈥