The United States Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler duped more than a few X users into believing he was resigning from the SEC on Wednesday — before saying he’s “not done.”
“It’s been an honor to serve as [SEC] Chair. Over the past 3 years, I’ve seen firsthand how the incredible staff at the SEC serve investors and issuers alike.” Gensler wrote in an April 17 X post.
In following posts, he noted the “more than 2,000 enforcement actions” and rules the SEC had finalized under his stewardship — words that appeared to lead up to him announcing his resignation.
“And we’re not done,” Gensler added, delivering the final punchline.
The posts went viral — they’ve currently been viewed over 1.1 million times, according to X figures.
“A legendary and respectable troll thread, honestly [in my opinion],” wrote crypto trader Jordan Fish, who goes by Cobie.
“This really does feel like a resignation tweet at first, but then it’s clearly not,” wrote Bloomberg Litigation Analyst Elliott Stein. “Gotta think that was intentional, given Gensler’s seeming penchant for trolling.”
Van Buren Capital general partner Scott Johnsson highlighted Gensler’s posts “leads with [number] of enforcement actions.”
“Would be like [Department of Justice/Bureau of Prisons] highlighting number of incarcerations. Lack of focus,” he added.
Last year, the SEC’s crypto-related enforcement actions reached a 10-year high under Gensler’s leadership — which brought 46 enforcement actions against crypto firms, doubling from 2021.
U.S. crypto industry executives and some lawmakers have claimed Gensler of taking a “regulation by enforcement” approach to crypto as the SEC has claimed dozens of cryptocurrencies are securities in lawsuits against crypto companies.
Gensler, meanwhile, has claimed crypto is full of fraud and manipulation and has said companies should “come into compliance.”
The crypto side of X got back at Gensler for his post — in its own way.
Related: Gary Gensler responds to US lawmakers over SEC’s false spot Bitcoin ETF tweet
Unofficial Crypto Twitter archivist “inversebrah” noted the platform’s crypto community “managed to score a couple of helthy [sic] ratios already.” A ratio is when a reply post garners more engagement — such as likes or shares — than the original post it replied to.
In this case, Gensler’s post received around 1,700 likes, but some responses have racked up more than three times that.
U.S. President Joe Biden nominated Gensler to chair the SEC in 2021. Gensler started his five-year tenure on April 17, 2021, and could serve as chair until April 17, 2026.
It is, however, custom for the SEC chair to resign if the U.S. elects a new president and Americans are heading to polls on Nov. 5 to vote on a possible rematch between Biden and former president Donald Trump.
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