In April 2019, Gary Gensler, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), gave a speech at MIT in which he promoted Algorand. Gensler stated that Algorand, a blockchain technology created by Turing Award winner Silvio Micali, was capable of creating applications such as Uber and Lift. Gensler’s promotion of Algorand has raised questions about potential conflicts of interest, as Silvio Micali is a former coworker of Gensler’s.
The promotion of Algorand also comes at a time when Gensler has been critical of the cryptocurrency industry. Most notably, Gensler has accused the cryptocurrency exchange Binance US of selling unregistered securities, including Algorand. This has led some to question whether Gensler’s promotion of Algorand was motivated by a personal or financial interest.
Attorney Jeremy Hogan, known for his coverage of the SEC’s case against Ripple, has suggested that Gensler’s promotion of Algorand could be in violation of a law used to sue Kim Kardashian over the Ethereum Max scam. According to Hogan, Gensler could be liable for shilling a security if he was either directly or indirectly paid by a relevant party.
Given that Gensler’s promotion of Algorand was made to a large crowd, and that Algorand is owned by a former coworker of Gensler’s, the potential implications of Gensler’s comments should not be overlooked. It is unclear whether Algorand paid Gensler for his speech, but if they did not, then this could be a moot point.
Algorand has both pros and cons associated with it, and readers can find these discussed in the collapsed comments below. Given the current regulatory climate for cryptocurrencies, it is important to be aware of potential conflicts of interest when it comes to the promotion of certain assets. For now, the public must wait and see if Gensler’s promotion of Algorand turns out to be a conflict of interest or a harmless comment.