Paul Atkins faces the Senate

Paul Atkins faced senators on the Banking Committee this morning as part of his confirmation to serve as chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

• Why it matters: The prior SEC chair became enemy No. 1 for the digital asset crowd.

What they're saying: "A top priority of my chairmanship will be to work with my fellow Commissioners and Congress to provide a firm regulatory foundation for digital assets through a rational, coherent, and principled approach," Atkins wrote in his testimony.

Friction point: Sen. Elizabeth Warren, referencing Atkins' tenure as an SEC commissioner, said he had an "almost perfect track record."

• "He got pretty much everything wrong in the run-up to the biggest financial crash since the Great Depression."

Context: Atkins served on the agency's five-member commission from 2002 to 2008.

• Two current commissioners, acting chair Mark Uyeda and Crypto Task Force chair Hester Peirce, worked on Atkins' staff.

The intrigue: Atkins has committed to sell his business if confirmed. Warren pressed Atkins to disclose the buyers of his consultancy, Patomak Global Partners, to verify they are not entities who might have business before the SEC.

• Atkins responded by saying he would comply with all government ethics requirements.

• Committee chair Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) asked that documents showing Atkins' compliance be entered into the record.

The big picture: The blockchain industry likes Atkins. Blockchain skeptics do not.

Flashback: In 2008, he was lead author of a paper about the SEC's enforcement work, which urged the agency to consider all three parts of its mission before taking enforcement actions.

• "The difficult choices of balancing conflicting interests must be guided by the transcendent principles of predictability, fairness, and transparency, culminating in the rule of law," he and his co-author, Brad Bondi, wrote.