US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Washington veteran Paul Atkins to be chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Bitcoin crossed $100,000 for the first time today.

Atkins, an SEC commissioner from 2002 to 2008, founded Patomak Global Partners, a consulting firm in 2009, whose clients include companies in the banking, trading and cryptocurrency industries.

The Trump transition team’s statement noted that since 2017, Atkins has been co-chair of the Digital Commerce Chamber, which promotes the use of digital assets.

“Paul is a proven leader in supporting common sense regulation,” Trump said in a statement that highlighted Atkins’ commitment to “stable, innovative” capital markets.

“He also recognizes that digital assets and other innovations are critical to making America greater than ever,” Trump added.

Bitcoin surged past $100,000 on hopes that Trump will push through measures to deregulate cryptocurrencies when he takes office next month.

During the presidential campaign, Trump attracted significant financial support from cryptocurrency supporters, some of whom are close to Republican megadonor Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.

Reacting to the news on Twitter that bitcoin had hit $100,000, Musk wrote, “Wow.”

The digital asset industry had been eagerly awaiting a change at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as outgoing chairman Gary Gensler took a hostile stance toward the sector.

Gensler has called the cryptocurrency world the “wild west” and has launched lawsuits against major trading platforms including Binance, Coinbase and Kraken, as well as several smaller startups.

The SEC chairman has also backed controversial measures that would require publicly traded companies to measure their exposure to climate change. | BGNES, AFP