Trump nominated a former SEC official who is friendly towards cryptocurrencies to lead the regulatory agency, causing Bitcoin to quickly rise and turn bullish during the trading day.

On Wednesday, December 4th, Eastern Time, Trump announced the nomination of Paul Atkins, a former SEC commissioner during the Bush administration, as the next SEC chairman. Following the nomination announcement, Bitcoin rebounded sharply at the beginning of Wednesday's midday session.

CoinMarketCap's compilation of Bitcoin trading data from multiple cryptocurrency exchanges shows that after Trump's nomination announcement, Bitcoin stabilized above $0.095 million and rose above $0.0957 million, reversing sharply by over $1,000 from the intraday low below $0.0947 million reached during midday, erasing the losses in the past 24 hours and slightly rising within 24 hours.

If Trump's nomination is confirmed, Atkins will take over as the SEC chairman from the current chairman Gary Gensler after Trump takes office. Gensler stated last month that he plans to step down on January 20th, the day of Trump's inauguration.

Gensler's resignation is seen as bullish by the cryptocurrency industry. This is because since becoming SEC chairman in 2021, he has implemented aggressive reform measures, including requiring companies to disclose climate risks, reforming stock trading rules, and cracking down on violations in the cryptocurrency sector, launching a severe crackdown on irregularities in the cryptocurrency industry.

Gensler's ambitious reform actions have caused strong opposition from Wall Street and the cryptocurrency industry. Cryptocurrency industry professionals believe that Gensler has not provided a method that truly aligns with the characteristics of cryptocurrencies as an emerging asset class, allowing cryptocurrencies to develop reasonably within the existing regulatory framework based on traditional financial architectures established decades ago.

Atkins served as an SEC commissioner from 2002 to 2008, a former top candidate for SEC chairman, and is the CEO of Patomak Global Partners, a strategic and risk management consulting firm he founded. His leadership at the SEC is seen as bullish by the crypto community.

According to the personal resume on Patomak Global Partners' official website, since 2017, Atkins has been "dedicated to setting the best practices for digital asset issuance and trading platforms as the Co-Chair of the Token Alliance, an industry advocacy group."

Atkins previously served as an advisor to the decentralized finance platform Reserve Rights Foundation, which issued the RSR token. Nevin Freeman, Co-Founder and CEO of Reserve, stated that Atkins provided guidance in the early stages of the Reserve project. Freeman expressed hope that if Atkins is appointed as SEC chairman, he will bring fairness in rule-making.

In addition to his support for cryptos, Atkins has also criticized some of the financial reforms introduced by the US government following the 2008 global financial crisis. For example, he criticized the Dodd-Frank Act for imposing excessive burdens on the banking industry.

In his nomination announcement on Wednesday, Trump referred to Atkins as a recognized regulatory leader.

"He believes that strong, innovative capital markets can meet investors' needs and provide the capital to make our economy the best in the world. He also recognizes that digital assets and other innovations are crucial to making America greater than ever before."

Commentators suggest that if confirmed, Atkins is expected to focus on reducing regulations and easing enforcement penalties. Tyler Gellasch, Chair of the financial industry organization Healthy Markets Association, described Atkins as the "godfather of conservative capital market ideology and a mentor to a generation of policymakers," stating that no one is more well-connected or capable of leading the SEC regulation reduction.