Trump’s latest nominees are a gift to his wealthiest crypto boosters
CNN
—
If it wasn't clear before, it is now: President-elect Donald Trump plans to boost the cryptocurrency industry while continuing a broad antitrust crackdown on Big Tech giants such as Amazon, Meta and Google.
That combination would appear to reward Trump's wealthiest and most influential donors in Silicon Valley, some of whom have specifically called for less regulation of crypto and weakening the power of large tech monopolies.
In short, it's the venture capitalist tech agenda.
On Wednesday, Trump said he plans to nominate Paul Atkins to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission and Gail Slater to head the Justice Department's antitrust division, two key appointments that will heavily influence his administration's relationship with the tech sector.
Atkins is a crypto advocate and a co-chairman of the Token Alliance at the Digital Chamber, a major blockchain trade association. Slater, an economic adviser to Vice President-elect JD Vance, served in the first Trump White House. Earlier in her career, Slater spent more than a decade working on antitrust investigations and technology policy as a staffer at the Federal Trade Commission.
Trump's choices here may be more obscure than some of his earlier, higher-profile picks such as former US Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general or former Fox News host Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense. But they could have a huge impact, not just on the price of bitcoin, which surged past $100,000 on Wednesday in anticipation of a crypto-friendly administration, but also on the future of the digital economy writ large.
"This is very much a kind of industrial policy, with some areas getting deeper scrutiny and others a lighter touch based on a particular vision of how to steer the market," said Gene Kimmelman, a former DOJ antitrust official.
In announcing his picks this week, Trump signaled a pivot away from the strong cryptocurrency regulation favored by President Joe Biden's SEC Chair, Gary Gensler. And he indicated that large tech platforms will continue to face tough US scrutiny by antitrust regulators with Slater at the helm.
"Big Tech has run wild for years," Trump wrote on Truth Social, "stifling competition in our most innovative sector and, as we all know, using its market power to crack down on the rights of so many Americans, as well as those of Little Tech! I was proud to fight these abuses in my First Term, and our Department of Justice's antitrust team will continue that work under Gail's leadership."
How Trump's picks reflect VC priorities
Trump's deliberate nod to "Little Tech" is likely to please influential tech investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, who, during the campaign, elevated the term and donated millions to a pro-Trump super PAC.
Trump's offhand usage of the phrase shows the significant and perhaps growing sway that some in venture capital now seem to enjoy within Trump's orbit, reflected as well by Vance's own background as a one-time venture capitalist and the lengths to which Peter Thiel, the right-wing tech billionaire and PayPal co-founder, went to promote Vance's entry into politics.
In July, Andreessen and Horowitz, founders of the famed tech investment firm Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, outlined a "Little Tech Agenda" that attacked regulatory scrutiny of crypto-related businesses, argued tech monopolists were stifling the startup ecosystem and called for "a whole-of-government program" to promote US technological supremacy.
"Little Tech is our term for tech startups, as contrasted to Big Tech incumbents," they wrote. "We believe bad government policies are now the #1 threat to Little Tech."
‘Zombie ideas'
Their critique derived from a self-described manifesto published the year before, in which Andreessen decried "regulatory capture" by large monopolies. He also identified a long list of perceived "enemies" to human progress that included corporate social responsibility, risk management, trust and safety, tech ethics and sustainability.
Those who subscribe to those "zombie ideas" are "suffering from ressentiment, a witches' brew of resentment, bitterness, and rage that is causing them to hold mistaken values," Andreessen wrote. "We believe we must help them find their way out of their self-imposed labyrinth of pain."
Andreessen's prescription? Let unfettered markets create more technology, because technology can fix all of society's ills, if only the short-sighted would get out of its way.
"We believe that there is no material problem, whether created by nature or by technology, that cannot be solved with more technology," Andreessen wrote.
Now, Trump seems poised to deliver exactly what Andreessen asked for: freedom from regulation for one of the tech industry's shiniest objects and the threat of further antitrust headaches for the most dominant tech platforms.
Trump's shift on crypto
There is little doubt among antitrust experts that Slater would pick up where the Biden DOJ left off on tech competition lawsuits. Slater would inherit two ongoing monopoly cases against Google; a monopoly case against Apple; a monopoly case against LiveNation, the parent of Ticketmaster; and a monopoly case against Visa. It was Trump's first DOJ that sued Google in 2020 over allegations it had monopolized the online search market, a monumental claim that a federal judge agreed with in a blockbuster ruling this summer.
"I anticipate significant continuity with the program launched by (Trump's first administration) and carried forward by the Biden administration, especially for the large tech enterprises," said William Kovacic, a former chair of the Federal Trade Commission. Kovacic described Slater as "a superb candidate" who is "a highly respected expert in competition law and policy."
Kimmelman agreed, saying Slater has "excellent credentials and a background in antitrust enforcement" who will "bring a very serious enforcement mindset."
Starting his administration talking tough on Big Tech could yield dividends for Trump later, Kimmelman added, depending on the extent to which Trump tries to use the Justice Department as a weapon against his enemies, as he has pledged to do, or as a clearinghouse for political favors, in a departure from longstanding norms.
"The wild card for antitrust will be how much the White House directly intervenes in enforcement matters," Kimmelman said. "We can expect corporate CEOs to curry favor as best they can with the White House in the hopes they get better regulatory and enforcement treatment. Time will tell how that plays out."
Atkins, meanwhile, is widely expected to pursue the types of pro-crypto policies that he has spent his time promoting as a private citizen. Last year, for example, Atkins argued on a podcast that if the SEC took a more "accommodating" approach to crypto firms and exchanges, it would be easier for Americans to use those platforms, which might cut down on the use of foreign-owned exchanges or the use of complicated, potentially risky workarounds to access them.
Trump himself has embraced crypto, despite earlier calling it a "scam." In addition to wooing the crypto industry and crypto-friendly megadonors, Trump now has his own stake in the digital assets sector. In September, he and his family launched a cryptocurrency business. In 2022, he also raised eyebrows by attempting to sell virtual trading cards, an apparent attempt at cashing in on the short-lived popularity of nonfungible tokens.
Atkins is a former SEC commissioner who served a six-year stint at the agency during the presidency of George W. Bush.
His nomination had another a16z partner, Chris Dixon, applauding on Wednesday.
"Congratulations to Paul Atkins on his nomination as SEC Chair. We are very optimistic about the opportunities under Mr. Atkin's leadership to accelerate progress and allow crypto to thrive in the U.S.," Dixon wrote on X, punctuating his message with an American flag emoji.
