WSJ: Binance tried to hire Gary Gensler as an advisor

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The largest crypto exchange several timestried to hire the current head of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to establish closer ties with American regulators. The Wall Street Journal writes about this, citing sources.

Binance was considering Gary GenslerGensler as an advisor when he taught at MIT in 2018-2019, before he became SEC chairman.

Ella Zhang, then headBinance's venture capital arm, and Harry Zhou, co-founder of Koi Trading, which Binance invested in, met with Gensler in October 2018. After Gensler resigned as an advisor, Zhou wrote in the chat:

“I noticed that although Gensler declined an advisor, he was generous in sharing licensing strategies.”

The second meeting took place in March 2019 in Tokyo. The founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, spoke with Gensler. In April 2021, Gensler became SEC Chairman.

WSJ journalists claim that executivesexchanges specifically created an American subsidiary (Binance US), which diverted the attention of law enforcement and regulatory authorities to themselves, thereby protecting the parent company Binance from officials.

Previously, Forbes published the resultsown investigation of Binance’s activities from August 17 to early December 2022. According to the magazine's journalists, while cryptocurrency markets "struggling to restore their liquidity," the world's largest exchange "secretly transferred about $1.8 billion to other undisclosed purposes." These funds were intended to support stablecoins known as B-peg USDC tokens. Binance has denied all allegations.