Crypto Exchange Binance Approached SEC Chair Gary Gensler in 2018 To Offer Advisory Position: Report

The world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, reportedly recruited current U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler for an advisory role back in 2018.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Binance employees approached Gensler when he was a professor at the prestigious US university, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Chats viewed by the WSJ show that a Binance staffer believed that Gensler would likely be “back in a regulator’s seat if Dems win the 2020 election.”

Per the report, Gensler declined the advisory position but offered Binance licensing strategies. The WSJ claims Gensler met with Ella Zhang, the head of Binance’s venture investing arm at the time, and Harry Zhou, the person who reportedly came up with the idea that the crypto exchange should establish an American business, leading to the creation of Binance.US.

According to chats reviewed by the WSJ, Zhou wrote,

“I observe that while Gensler declined advisor-ship, he was generous in sharing license strategies.”

According to the report, Gensler did meet with Binance founder and chief executive, Changpeng Zhao, in March 2019 in Tokyo.

Binance was not the only company interested in Gensler back then. According to the WSJ, multiple private companies tried to recruit the SEC Chair between 2018 and 2021 to offer a position in an advisory capacity.

 

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