I'm looking at the price of the digital currency Bitcoin above $100,000 right now.

I'm David Brancaccio. A Bitcoin right now costs $102,726. That's an increase of 50% in a month. The demand for Bitcoin is in part.

A bet the incoming Trump administration will keep regulation of the crypto industry light.

And there's news that the President elect plans to appoint a crypto-friendly chair for the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Paul Atkins is a former SEC commissioner, and more recently he's advised crypto firms through his consulting company.

Marketplaces Henry Epp is here with more.

Yeah, David, Paul Atkins' friendliness with the crypto sector has been getting headlines,

but that's just one area he'll be able to influence as SEC chair if he's confirmed by the Senate. The SEC oversees securities markets, stocks, corporate bonds, and its mission is to protect

investors from fraud and manipulation. And one of its key jobs is regulating how much information public companies must share with their investors.

So Atkins will play a big role in determining what those disclosures might look like going forward and what kind of penalties companies might face when they break the rules.

And there will be sharp differences between Atkins and the current SEC chair, Gary Gensler.

Yeah, he's generally expected to take a much more hands-off approach to the financial industry.

In the past, he's criticized some enforcement actions taken by the SEC against corporations,

arguing that large penalties hurt shareholders.

And Atkins may also quickly shift the agency's approach to ESG, that's environmental, social,

and governance investing. One example, under Gensler, the SEC tried to implement rules that would

require companies to disclose risks that impacts from climate change could pose to their finances and

thus to their investors. Those rules faced immediate lawsuits, and Atkins could roll them back

or just stop defending them in court. All right. Also, South Koreans are buying Bitcoin to hedge

against the fall of the traditional currency, the Juan, weakened by several hours of martial law there this week.

And there's a picked ahead, the IRS, Billy Long, described by the president-elect as a business and tax advisor.

Long is also a former member of Congress and a pro-auctioneer. Marketplace's Nancy Marshall-Gensar has more.

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