Fact Check: Did Gary Gensler resign? AI-generated claim debunked

A claim that the Chairperson of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler, has resigned from his position is making rounds on the internet. On July 1, an alleged news media site called The Crypto Alert published an article citing anonymous sources that shared that the 65-year-old government official has submitted his resignation "following an internal investigation.”

The alleged anonymous source said:

Screenshot of the fake article on Gary Gensler's resignation.

"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."

The news was copied by several media organizations with no claims backing it up and the alleged claims sent waves in the crypto market.

However, soon after, fact-checking website Cointelegraph claimed that the article was fake and generated via artificial intelligence. After running the published story on the third-party AI detector ZeroGPT, the website found that 96.8 percent of the text was generated by artificial intelligence.

Moreover, Cointelegraph points out that the website, where the news initially appeared, seems to be new with only 17 posts. Almost all the articles on the alleged news website appeared to be generated by AI. The site was also registered on June 24, as per the registration records seen by the outlet.

---

Gary Gensler's fake resignation news garnered instant public attention

Several news outlets picked up the fake story, with Twitter user @WhaleChart garnering over 1.8 million views on its post.

But soon, people started raising eyebrows about the credibility of the story. On July 3, journalist Eleanor Terrett, who works as a Fox Business reporter, shared a screenshot of her reaching out to the SEC's PR team and confirmed there was no legitimacy to the news.

Screenshot of Eleanor Terrett's email confirming Gary Gensler is not resigning. (Photo via @EleanorTerrett/Twitter)

When asked in an email if Gensler is resigning from his position due to an alleged investigation, the team just replied with a "Nope."

While addressing the rumors about Gary Gensler's fake resignation from the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), pro-XRP attorney John Deaton said it could happen in reality given the political elections are scheduled to happen next year.

Deaton argues that after SEC cracked down on cryptocurrency exchanges and projects, Gary Gensler's resignation should not come as a surprise. The agency has also been entangled in a court battle for more than two years now with Ripple.

The Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is facing a wave of criticism from various stakeholders in the cryptocurrency market, including participants, exchange platforms, and legal teams representing firms targeted by the regulatory body's allegations.

Prominent figures in the cryptocurrency industry, including Binance's Changpeng Zhao (commonly known as CZ), executives from Coinbase, and Ripple's CEO Brad Garlinghouse, have voiced their disapproval of the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) recent tactics, labeling it as "regulation by enforcement."