It is being alleged by Binance lawyers that Gary Gensler, current chairman of the SEC, offered his services to Binance as an advisor back in March 2019.
Gensler and Binance
With Gary Gensler causing panic and mayhem in the crypto markets as he serves Binance and Coinbase with notice to sue them for alleged misdemeanours such as listing securities and failing to register with the SEC, it comes as quite some surprise to learn that he may have offered his services as an advisor to Binance four years earlier.
It was reported by CNBC that Gensler had a series of conversations with Binance officials and CEO Changpeng Zhao himself in March of that year. It was alleged by Binance lawyers that Gensler was perfectly happy with discussing the role of an informal advisor for the crypto exchange.
Gensler lauds Algorand
This was at a time when Gensler was teaching a blockchain course as a professor at MIT. Gensler appeared to be quite unperturbed with the crypto industry back then, and is on record as saying that most cryptocurrencies are not securities and lauded the technology of Algorand and its founder Silvio Micali, calling it “great technology”.
Four years later, Gensler, now the chairman of the SEC, includes $ALGO, the native token of Algorand, as one of several “securities” that both Binance and Coinbase list on their exchanges.
Given the alleged ties between Gensler, Zhao, and Binance, lawyers acting for Binance say that “they’d asked for his recusal from any actions regarding the company. They say they got no acknowledgement from SEC staff.”
A 180 degree change of mind
Gensler’s about face on crypto obviously happened once he landed the job as SEC chairman, and it does appear a little odd that he would have such a complete change of mind on the sector.
It probably can’t be argued that Gensler was a novice in financial affairs when he was said to be having discussions with Binance. By that time he had spent 18 years at Goldman Sachs as Head of Finance, had served as Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets for the US Treasury, and had completed a stint as Chairman of the CFTC.
When Gensler levied all of the highly public enforcement actions against some of the most compliant companies in the crypto space, such as Kraken, Paxos, and Coinbase, he must have been fully aware of the consequences of such actions for the crypto market and for all the retail investors in these markets.
Tasked with bringing crypto down?
The actions of the SEC chairman do appear to be designed to cause the maximum turbulence and damage to the crypto industry and must have caused investors to lose some part of their invested funds.
Has Gensler been tasked with destroying the crypto industry in the US? Is this the plan of the Biden Administration? With the crypto industry perhaps being seen as a threat to the US banking system, this might well be a plausible assumption.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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