SEC Chair Paul Atkins Outlines Priorities in SEC Speech

May 19, 2025

On May 19, 2025, SEC Chair Paul Atkins gave a speech during his first SEC Speaks conference as SEC Chairman. In his remarks, Atkins covered the SEC’s current priorities, most of which should come as no surprise: innovation at the SEC, cryptocurrency, FinHub, investing in private funds, and the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT). More details on each are included below.

• Innovation and the SEC: According to Atkins, at times, the SEC has both enabled and stifled innovation. He believes the SEC should embrace and champion it. Atkins cited several examples where the SEC was behind the curve in terms of innovation, which had a detrimental effect on markets and investors. The Paperwork Crisis in the 1960s refers to when there was a “big, beautiful bull market” that led to inefficiencies, as stacks of paper stock certificates had to be physically delivered by clerks carrying boxes of paper certificates to and from various broker-dealers on Wall Street and across America. The result was the closing of exchanges on Wednesdays to allow firms time to process all the certificates. This breakdown resulted in some firms going under, but Atkins credited the SEC for embracing industry collaboration and its rulemaking power, which resulted in a move to electronic transactions and book-entry. This mentality of embracing innovation, he says, will help the SEC and the industry to prevail.
• Crypto Innovation: Unsurprisingly, in his remarks, Atkins also reinforced his support of, and focus on, crypto markets at the SEC. He criticized previous leadership at the SEC for having a “head-in-the-sand” approach, followed by other avoidance tactics. Claiming that it is a “new day at the SEC,” Atkins said he has directed his Divisions to draft rule proposals related to crypto. He said he would like the SEC to allow SEC registrants to custody and trade both securities and non-securities under one roof, which he said, “could reduce costs for investors while allowing non-security trading to enter a regulated environment at the federal level expeditiously.”
• FinHub: In line with his embrace of innovation and crypto, Atkins said the SEC has asked Congress for reprogramming approval to integrate the functions of the agency’s Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology, or “FinHub” into other parts of the agency. As it is now, Atkins said it’s too small to be efficient for the rapid emergence of technologies such as AI and digital assets.
• Investing in Private Funds: Regarding private funds, Atkins said he intends to have the SEC address the 23-year-old practice of requiring that closed-end funds investing 15% or more of their assets in private funds must impose a minimum initial investment requirement of $25,000 and restrict sales to investors that satisfy the accredited investor standard. He said this “common-sense approach will give all investors the ability to seek exposure to a growing and important asset class, while still providing the investor protections afforded to registered funds.”
• CAT: Lastly, Atkins addressed the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), which has been scrutinized given its costs of nearly $250 million a year. He has instructed his staff to undertake a comprehensive review of the CAT, including reporting requirements and the scope of what is collected.

To read his full remarks, click here.

What does this mean for me?

None of this comes as a surprise. Atkins has long been a supporter of cryptocurrency and greater transparency in and analysis of the costs and benefits of SEC regulations. Will this lead to a new crypto proposal?  Will a desire for a custody framework for cryptocurrency lead to the proposed amended Custody Rule (the Enhanced Safeguarding Rule) to be reproposed with cryptocurrency in mind? This is the first speech from Chairman Atkins. We will have to wait and see what priority the Republican controlled commission will focus on first.