Binance Reportedly Tried Hiring Gary Gensler Before Appointment As SEC Chair

Binance reportedly sought to hire former Goldman Sachs executive Gary Gensler as an adviser prior to his appointment as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

What Happened: According to a Wall Street Journal report based on internal messages and documents from 2018 and 2019, the crypto firm approached Gensler while he was teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Messages from Binance's executives, seen by the newspaper, indicate that Ella Zhang, then the head of Binance’s venture investment arm, and Harry Zhou, co-founder of Binance-invested Koi Trading, met with Gensler in October 2018. 

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In a chat seen by WSJ, Gensler had declined the adviser role, to which Zhou wrote: “I observe that while Gensler declined advisor-ship, he was generous in sharing license strategies.”

According to a Binance employee cited by WSJ, it was likely that Gary Gensler would be back in a regulatory seat if the Democrats won the 2020 election. This prediction turned out to be true when Gensler was appointed as SEC Chair in April 2021.

In March 2019, Gensler and Binance founder Changpeng  Zhao held a second meeting in Tokyo to discuss the potential regulatory challenges faced by the cryptocurrency industry. 

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Photo by Third Way Think Tank on Flickr