The cryptocurrency community was taken by storm on the weekend when rumors about the resignation of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s chair, Gary Gensler, started circulating on the internet. However, the news turns out to be fake.
A fake website recently started spreading rumors that SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has resigned. The site has only published a few articles. Some crypto bloggers are also spreading this rumor. SEC PR told FOX reporters that Gensler is not resigning. https://t.co/X7q5z6JX5k…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) July 3, 2023
The source of this news is an article on a newly created website that goes by the name of CryptoAlert. The article, citing an anonymous official from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), says that Gary Gensler has submitted his resignation following an internal investigation. According to the article, the official stated:
“Gary Gensler has resigned from his position as Chairman of the SEC following an internal investigation into alleged misconduct. The details of the investigation are confidential, but the decision to step down underscores the seriousness of the findings.”
An AI-Generated Fake News of Gary Gensler
The article’s author wrote in the disclaimer that news is based on anonymous reports and should be treated as speculation until official confirmation. However, even the rumor were enough to shock the community as it set the crypto Twitter ablaze.
However, by Monday, July 3rd, it became abundantly clear that this was fake news and the probability of the SEC chair resigning is almost zero. According to Charles Gasparino, senior correspondent at FOX Business Network (FBN), SEC’s PR has denied that he is leaving. He wrote:
“I tried to get an answer from the @SECGov flack on @GaryGensler’s rumored resignation (which sounds like wishful thinking from his haters). When I asked the question via email, his chief PR guy said, “Sorry what?” When I re-asked the question, radio silence.”
I tried to get an answer from the @SECGov flack on @GaryGensler’s rumored resignation (which sounds like wishful thinking from his haters). When I asked the question via email, his chief PR guy said “Sorry what?” When I re-asked the question, radio silence. That was 4 hrs ago
— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) July 2, 2023
Ben Armstrong, a famous crypto influencer said on Twitter:
“What I was told by an insider today when I asked about Gensler:
Gensler resigning is almost definitely false. If he ends up leaving soon, it more than likely won’t be a resignation.”
What I was told by an insider today when I asked about Gensler:
Gensler resigning is almost definitely false. If he ends up leaving soon, it more than likely won’t be a resignation.
— Ben Armstrong (@Bitboy_Crypto) July 2, 2023
When the text of the article was pasted into an AI detector GPTZero, the result concluded that this was entirely AI-generated news. The website is new, with only 17 posts, the first of which was published on June 22nd. All the posts score more than 70% in the AI detector.
Even though Gensler’s resignation news is fake, #FireGaryGensler has been trending on crypto Twitter for the last few days. On June 12, 2023, US lawmakers introduced an “SEC Stabilization Act” to the House of Representatives. One of its main provisions seeks to fire Gensler. Since the bill’s introduction, Twitter has been flooded with #FireGaryGensler.
SEC Chair is now under a barrage of criticism for his unethical harshness and enforcement actions towards the digital assets industry. As reported, the Blockchain Association has released a paper urging Gary Gensler to recuse himself from digital asset enforcement decisions because of his evident bias against the crypto industry.
