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Bittrex faces lawsuit for trading unregistered security ALGO, community uncovers video of Gary Gensler praising ALGO

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Bittrex faces lawsuit for trading unregistered security ALGO, community uncovers video of Gary Gensler praising ALGO

During the latest hearing, Gary Gensler, the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), once again angered the crypto community with his testimony. However, thanks to the community's efforts, a video resurfaced showing Gensler praising the public blockchain Algorand (ALGO) years ago. Ironically, Algorand was recently accused of being an unregistered security in legal documents filed by the SEC against the Bittrex exchange.

Gary Gensler: Algorand Possesses Great Technology

Delegate Cash founder foobar tweeted:

Gensler claims that Algorand is not a registered security, yet there are circulating videos of him praising Algorand. Such sheer absurdity completely undermines the SEC's position in court, leaving it open to all reasonable doubts.

This was from Gensler's speech at MIT in May 2019, full video here.

In the video, Gensler discusses blockchain technology and mentions Algorand:

You can build Uber or Lyft on blockchain, well... maybe in 5 years, by then blockchain will have a certain strength in performance, like Silvio Micali's Algorand, who is a Turing Award winner from MIT. We have worked together, Silvio has great technology and performance, you can develop Uber on Algorand.

Gary Gensler: Algorand is Very Interesting

In a video released by @LilMoonLambo, Gensler delves into more details:

Silvio Micali's Algorand, he is a computer science and AI lab professor, as well as a Turing Award winner. He founded an interesting company, Algorand's consensus mechanism is like randomly selecting people from a jury, picking 12 nodes, each block verification has a screening mechanism, but there is a larger group overseeing the jury's operation, because trust does not exist on the blockchain, there needs to be a similar double-check mechanism to review the jury's decisions.

He also emphasizes that if he oversimplified Silvio's outstanding work, he deeply apologizes.

Gary Gensler's Double Standards?

There are many areas of doubt or criticism, Gensler seems inconsistent and has double standards, or is it a case of a change in position leading to a change in mindset?

  1. Gensler's speech at MIT in May 2019 happened just before Algorand's mainnet launch and token release in June.

  2. Algorand's consensus mechanism, pure proof-of-stake (PPoS), is similar to proof of ownership, which Gensler found interesting at the time, but later believed staking touched on securities: "Is PoS Ethereum a Security? SEC Chairman: Staking Meets the Criteria for Determination, Services by Operators Equivalent to Loans".

  3. Algorand was just accused of being an unregistered security in legal documents filed by the SEC against the exchange Bittrex: "US SEC Sues Longstanding Exchange Bittrex, Alleging Violations with Overseas Subsidiary Order Sharing".

  4. Algorand has indeed drawn regulatory scrutiny, with Coinbase banning retail ALGO staking services in March this year as well link.

In the past, celebrities like Kim Kardashian and NBA Hall of Famer Paul Pierce have been fined for endorsing the cryptocurrency EthereumMax (EMAX) in social media posts. Should Gensler, despite only mentioning the technical aspects of Algorand, also bear some responsibility?

Algorand ALGO Performance Since Listing