Bitcoin Rockets As New SEC Chairman Names Crypto Regulation His Top Priority
On April 22, US entrepreneur Paul Atkins was sworn in as the new sec chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In his speech, he promised to make the establishment of adequate crypto regulation the SEC’s top priority under this chairmanship. Bitcoin reacted to that by soaring approximately 6.5% and regaining $94,000 for the first time in almost two months. This is the second time Atkins has been appointed to join the SEC; in 2002, former US president George W. Bush made him an SEC commissioner.
Bitcoin price reacts to new SEC chairman’s statement
Donald Trump’s return to the White House this year has already begun to send ripples through the cryptocurrency space and has become pivotal, particularly for Bitcoin. This week, as mentioned above, he appointed Paul Atkins as the new SEC chairman. The market interpreted it as a major win for the whole cryptocurrency landscape, since Atkins is well known for his strong pro-crypto views. He promised that the regulatory agency under his leadership would focus on developing a “firm regulatory foundation for digital assets through a rational, coherent and principled approach” and would make it the SEC’s top priority.
Reacting to that, Bitcoin soared above $90,000 for the first time in the past 50 days, staging a massive rebound in market sentiment after two months of stagnation. Analysts believed that before Atkins’s appointment, many investors, including institutional ones, were somewhat hesitant and refrained from returning to the crypto market because of the continuous uncertainty that dominated US regulation. But now that Atkins has made his statements, and with that fact multiplied by his pro-crypto regulation stance in the past, investors seem to have seen a green light to go into crypto.
On the day when the new SEC chair was sworn in, Bitcoin ETFs faced an unprecedented net flow of almost $913 million, with Ark 21 Shares surpassing the usual leaders in this space – BlackRock and Fidelity. That was the highest daily inflow into spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds since January 20 – the day when Donald Trump took office in the White House and Bitcoin set a historic price record of $109,114.
Trump’s return to White House, pivotal for crypto space
The pro-crypto stance demonstrated by Donald Trump has become the golden thread of his second presidential term so far. Once back in the Oval Office in late January, he first ordered the formation of a task team to research crypto in detail and how it can be beneficial for the United States. As a result of that task force’s work, he eventually signed an executive order to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, which then Trump’s administration began referring to as Digital Fort Knox (thus directly likening Bitcoin to digital gold and its famous storage vault). Thus, Trump admitted that he expected Bitcoin to play a strong role in the future of US economic and monetary policy. And even though Trump’s further actions cooled the crypto market significantly, the community’s enthusiasm sparked by the US president’s initiatives remained intact.
Trump’s administration intends to start forming the Bitcoin Reserve by refusing to sell nearly 200,000 Bitcoins confiscated from illicit activities in 2020, and particularly from hackers linked to The Silk Road. Speaking of the latter, Trump signed an order that gave a full and unconditional pardon to the Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who had spent roughly eleven years behind bars since his arrest and conviction in 2014.
Aside from the 200,000 Bitcoins, the plan is to accumulate one million BTC over the next four years, and this should be done without increasing the tax burden on US citizens. The Bitcoin Reserve would be managed by a specially formed council within the Department of the Treasury working in close cooperation with the Federal Reserve and the SEC on such issues as Bitcoin acquisitions, custody, etc.
Aside from Atkins, Trump made another key appointment, underscoring his commitment to make the US a global leader in the cryptocurrency space and digital economy. Trump appointed tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist David Sachs as the “crypto czar,” who would also be in charge of AI regulation. Sacks is well-known in the space for his crypto investments and early support of Bitcoin and Ethereum. With this guy at the steering wheel, Trump’s administration makes it clear that crypto, blockchain, and artificial intelligence are going to be at the frontline of Trump’s leadership in the US.
However, many have been calling Trump a populist, criticizing him for stirring economic uncertainty around the globe with his high trade tariffs (140% ones against China). Besides, last week, Trump lambasted the head of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, for his decision to maintain the current interest rates against Trump’s expectations of a rate cut. Trump even hinted that he intends to replace Powell over this decision. The crypto community is watching out for further developments regarding this issue.
