According com lawyers representing Binance, Gensler reportedly offered to serve as an advisor to the exchange in March 2019.
Binance, one of the largest and most recognized cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, is currently under investigation by the SEC, which accuses it of operating illegally in the United States. Documents filed on June 7 indicate that lawyers allege Gensler volunteered to advise Binance amid an environment of increasingly tight cryptocurrency regulations.
However, according to um According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Binance would have already approached Gensler for the first time in 2018 for the position of consultant. At that meeting, the head of Binance's venture investment arm at the time, Ella Zhang, and the co-founder of Koi Trading, Harry Zhou, offered the position to Gensler, who ended up turning down the offer.
Gensler, before assuming the presidency of the SEC, was a professor of practical economics and global management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He was appointed to chair the SEC by US President Joe Biden in February 2021, and was sworn in on April 17, 2021.
Amidst the SEC’s accusations, Binance issued a statement via its social media channels, where it stated that it is “different” from other cryptocurrency exchanges. Binance maintains that its wallet addresses are transparent and that it has never embezzled funds from consumers, in a clear response to accusations of inappropriate practices and regulatory actions against it.
At the same time, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, sparked a debate on Twitter, questioning why the SEC never sued FTX, despite Gensler pointing out that there were many “parallels” between the two companies.
They didn't sue FTX. https://t.co/FVgi5l6VcI
- CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) June 6, 2023
