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Lost Texts Spur Oversight Inquiry Into Former SEC Chair Gary Gensler

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In brief

  • House Republicans have informed current SEC Chair Paul Atkins that they’re investigating the loss of nearly a year of text messages from former Chair Gary Gensler’s smartphone.
  • Last month, the Office of the Inspector General report found IT staff failures and poor policies led to the permanent deletion of messages from October 2022 through September 2023.
  • Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal tweeted that a district court has ordered all parties to appear on October 8 to address the deletion of the texts.

Nearly a year of text messages from former Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler were permanently deleted due to agency errors, prompting House Republicans to launch an oversight investigation into regulatory lapses.

Four Republican committee chairs, including House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill, informed current SEC Chair Paul Atkins that Congress is investigating the loss of Gensler’s communications from October 2022 through September 2023, spanning the agency’s most aggressive enforcement push against crypto firms, in a letter sent Tuesday.

“It appears that former Chair Gensler held companies to a standard that his own agency did not meet,” the letter says, noting the SEC collected over $400 million in fiscal year 2023 alone from firms for recordkeeping violations.

Gensler’s smartphone stopped syncing with the agency’s device management system on July 6, 2023, though it “otherwise functioned normally and was used regularly, according to the Office of the Inspector General report released last month.

Despite repeated warnings flagging the device as inactive every two weeks, IT staff took no action for 62 days, the lawmakers’ letter pointed out.

The House letter notes that while former Chair Gensler’s staff claimed he “usually texted for administrative reasons,” the IG review found “multiple instances of substantive, mission-related communications between Gensler, his staff, his fellow Commissioners, and other senior officials.

“The district court just ordered everyone to appear on October 8 to address the destruction of documents by the Gensler @SECGov as detailed by its own inspector general,” Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal tweeted on Tuesday. “We appreciate the Court’s attention to this matter.”

The district court just ordered everyone to appear on October 8 to address the destruction of documents by the Gensler @SECGov as detailed by its own inspector general. We appreciate the Court’s attention to this matter. pic.twitter.com/g5J1i8VLjq

— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) September 30, 2025

Gensler’s crypto crackdown

The missing communications span a period when Gensler launched an industry-wide regulatory assault following FTX’s November 2022 collapse.

Under his leadership, the SEC insisted the crypto industry’s business model was “built on non-compliance,” with Gensler declaring in a June 2023 CNBC interview, “we don’t need more digital currency” beyond the U.S. dollar.

He compared the crypto sector to “the 1920s before federal securities laws were put in place,” calling participants “hucksters, fraudsters, scam artists” running “Ponzi schemes.”

The agency authorized over 100 enforcement actions against crypto firms during this period, targeting major exchanges including Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance.

Last month, through a third-party research firm, History Associates, Coinbase requested sanctions against the SEC, calling the agency’s “destroy-and-delay approach to records” cause for “irreparable harm.”

In 2013, while Gensler served as Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, that agency’s Inspector General criticized him for conducting official business through his personal email account, the letter pointed out.

Republicans are now coordinating with the Inspector General to examine whether other senior officials’ communications were similarly lost and whether the agency’s internal controls adequately protect federal records.

The SEC has undergone a transformation under the Donald Trump administration, with the President appointing Paul Atkins, a crypto advocate and former SEC commissioner, to replace Gensler.

Atkins was confirmed in April and has launched “Project Crypto,” a sweeping initiative to relax regulations on digital assets.

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Republicans Launch Inquiry Into Gary Gensler’s Lost Sec Texts
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Republicans Launch Inquiry into Gary Gensler’s Lost SEC Texts

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House Republicans have formally notified US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins that they are investigating the loss of text messages from former SEC Chair Gary Gensler during his tenure, amid concerns over the handling of official records.

In the official letter sent by the Republicans on September 30, 2025, they said that they are working with the SEC’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) to learn more about the deleted text messages of former SEC Chair Gary Gensler.

Earlier on September 3, the SEC’s  OIG had released a report titled “Special Review: Avoidable Errors Led to the Loss of Former SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s Text Message”. According to the report, on July 6, 2023, former Chair Gensler’s “smartphone stopped communicating with the SEC’s mobile device management system.” 

Even though the phone “worked normally and was used often, the SEC’s mobile device management system thought the phone was “inactive” for 62 days. The problem was brought up many times, but OIT staff did nothing to look into or fix it.

OIT instituted a “new policy of remotely wiping any SEC mobile device that did not

communicate with the mobile device management system for at least 45 days.”

Gensler’s phone was eventually wiped on September 6, 2023, well past the policy’s 45-day threshold.

Since there had been no backup since October 18, 2022, the factory reset erased all data, including text messages. The OIG attempted to recover the messages using forensic methods but was unable to retrieve everything. To partially restore the records, SEC staff compiled a list of 34 internal contacts they believed Gensler had communicated with.

However, this list did not include other commissioners, and Gensler staff were not involved in making it. Many think that the deleted messages contained important conversations between Gensler, commissioners, senior officials, and staff that went beyond just coordinating administrative tasks.

Crypto giants vocalize criticism 

This incident has raised fresh concerns about the way agencies deal with sensitive information, especially records of high-ranking officials. Critics have also alleged that the SEC has a double standard because it has punished outside groups for breaking recordkeeping rules, but hasn’t done anything to protect its own leaders’ digital communications.

Earlier, on September 11, Coinbase had also asked a federal court in Washington to punish the regulator. The exchange said this after the OIG released its report on September 3. 

Further, Tyler Winklevoss, Co-Founder of Gemini, criticized Gary Gensler following his September 18 interview on CNBC. In the interview, Gensler highlighted that the SEC handled nearly 100 fraud cases during his tenure and emphasized his strict approach to cryptocurrency, aimed at protecting investors. Winklevoss argued that Gensler’s methods have made it more difficult for the crypto industry to grow and innovate.

Also Read: SEC Meets NYSE and ICE to Discuss Rules and Tokenized Stocks



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Coinbase Seeks Sanctions Over SEC’s Missing Texts Episode

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Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure

Coinbase has slammed the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a “destroy-and-delay approach” to records, accusing the agency of erasing crucial text messages related to pending crypto litigations

Coinbase Accuses SEC Of ‘Destroying’ Records

On Thursday, crypto exchange Coinbase, through historical research firm History Associates, asked the federal court to “bring the SEC’s secretive policy shifts on crypto to sunlight” with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case.

Coinbase’s CLO, Paul Grewal, explained that the company asked the US District Court for the District of Columbia to address the “gross violation of public trust” that the regulatory agency was recently part of “to ensure it never happens again.”

“The Gensler SEC destroyed documents they were required to preserve and produce. We now have proof from the SEC’s own Inspector General,” Grewal wrote on X, affirming that the regulatory agency “destroyed” key text message records, even though Coinbase had asked for “information about ‘all communications’ within the SEC related to crypto regulatory and enforcement decision-making years ago.”

As reported by Bitcoinist, the Commission was recently under fire after an Office of Inspector General (OIG) report detailed a series of “avoidable” mistakes from the watchdog’s IT department that resulted in the loss of records linked to crypto enforcement actions during Gary Gensler’s tenure, resulting in the loss of the former SEC Chairman’s text messages between 2022 and 2023.

According to the court filing, the SEC “revealed to the world just days ago that the agency has forever stymied public investigation of these issues by flouting FOIA’s mandates and destroying key documents.”

Coinbase’s court case highlighted that the recent report detailed how the Commission has “excluded” SEC officials’ text messages when processing FOIA requests, even if many constituted agency records subject to the request. Additionally, it revealed that the lost Gensler text messages “were destroyed (…) after these FOIA requests were filed, but long before the litigation began.”

The document also alleged that the same has happened to more than 20 other high-ranking SEC officials’ texts, and dozens more have been or could be at imminent risk. “Although the SEC has known of these glaring and urgent problems for two years, none of this was disclosed to this Court or History Associates during 14 months of litigation,” it added.

Holding the SEC To Its Own Standard

Previously, Coinbase’s CLO affirmed that “this isn’t some ‘oops’ moment. This was a destruction of evidence relevant to pending litigation.” Similarly, the filing stated that the SEC can’t claim “no harm, no foul” for running “thirteenth-hour searches” that come “far too late.”

It argued that if the regulatory agency had conducted prompt, proper searches when History Associates first submitted its FOIA requests in July and August 2023, the Commission could have reviewed the records at the time or taken actions to preserve them.

Excerpt of Coinbase’s court document. Source: Paul Grewal

“It may be impossible to reconstruct how many responsive texts have been irretrievably lost due to the SEC’s stonewalling and what critical information will never see daylight as a result. But what is certain is that the SEC’s destroy-and-delay approach to records must end immediately,” the document read.

The case noted that within the last few years, the SEC had imposed over a billion dollars in fines on private parties for similar failures to preserve securities-related text messages and communications while emphasizing that “everybody should play by the same rules” and be held “accountable for violating (…) time-tested record keeping requirements.”

To ensure that the SEC is “held to its own standard” and prevent similar incidents in the future, Coinbase asked the Court to hold a hearing and order appropriate relief, including an expedited proper search for and production of all relevant texts that the agency’s searches did not uncover, discovery to “get to the bottom of the agency’s spoliation,” and all appropriate sanctions.

Bitcoin (BTC) trades at $114,978 in the one-week chart. Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView

Featured Image from NBC News, Chart from TradingView.com

Editorial Process for bitcoinist is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.



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Public Keys: Crypto IPOs Sizzle, Missing Gensler Texts Grizzle

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In brief

  • Gemini debuts on Nasdaq with $4.4B valuation, shares up 22.6% amid regulatory drama with CFTC nominee.
  • Figure launches public trading at $5.3B valuation as crypto lending meets capital markets.
  • Tokenization gains momentum with BlackRock eyeing ETF tokenization and Nasdaq proposing tokenized stock trading.

Public Keys is a weekly roundup from Decrypt that tracks the key publicly traded crypto companies.

Gemini’s IPO Pop

Crypto exchange Gemini hit a $4.4 billion valuation on its Nasdaq debut Friday. At the time of writing, the company’s shares—which trade under the GEMI ticker symbol—are hovering around $34. That’s a 22.6% gain from when the stock began trading.

Gemini was founded in 2014 and granted a BitLicense by the New York State Department of Financial Services the following year. The company raised $425 million through its IPO, according to Decrypt calculations based on regulatory filings. Reuters was first to report yesterday that the firm’s IPO was significantly oversubscribed.

But there’s been drama brewing between the company’s founders, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, and Commodities and Futures Trading Commission Chair nominee Brian Quintenz.

The CFTC nominee shared screenshots of a July text thread with Tyler on X. The messages show that Quintenz was contacted about a complaint Gemini filed regarding alleged misconduct at the regulator.

Gemini paid $5 million to settle its CFTC lawsuit in January, just a few weeks before the trial was set to begin. But in June, the company’s lawyers filed a complaint alleging the CFTC was wrong to have gone after the exchange in the first place.



“I believe these texts make it clear what they were after from me, and what I refused to promise,” he wrote. “It’s my understanding that after this exchange they contacted the President and asked that my confirmation be paused for reasons other than what is reflected in these texts.”

There were a few people in the thread calling foul on his timing, especially given that his current firm, Andreessen Horowitz, has a large stake in Gemini’s direct competitor, Coinbase.

An Attractive Figure

Gemini is the most recent, but not the only crypto company to make its big public debut this week.

Crypto lender Figure began trading on the Nasdaq under the FIGR ticker Thursday, seeing shares jump 24%. The firm stepped into public trading with an even bigger, $5.3 billion valuation.

Its share price ahead of the closing bell on Friday sits around $33.46, about 33% above its $25 IPO price.

“Our IPO showed what’s possible when blockchain meets capital markets: speed, transparency, efficiency,” the company said Friday on X. “IPO day was a celebration of our people, partners, and the vision driving us forward, and we’re even more excited for what’s next.”

Figure CEO Michael Tannenbaum told Decrypt that the company is showing Wall Street how blockchains can be used to create more efficient markets for real-world assets, while also helping investors better grasp concepts like tokenization.

Tokenization—that is, taking real-world assets such as stocks and creating blockchain-based equivalents—has been getting a lot of buzz lately. According to a recent report in Bloomberg, Blackrock is considering tokenizing its ETFs. No, not just BUIDL, its flagship tokenized fund launched with Securitize in 2024. The scope for this move would be much broader—and bring trillions worth of dollars with it.

Even Nasdaq has expressed interest to the SEC in allowing tokenized stocks to trade on its exchanges. The company proposed that issuers would get to opt in to having tokenized versions of their securities trade.

What Gensler Texts?

Crypto exchange Coinbase has claimed that the SEC has done “irreparable harm” by destroying documents from its Gary Gensler era.

“The Gensler SEC destroyed documents they were required to preserve and produce,” Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal wrote on X Thursday, alongside a link to the court filing. “We now have proof from the SEC’s own Inspector General.”

A report last week by the SEC’s Office of the Inspector General found that nearly a year of then-Chairman Gary Gensler’s text messages were permanently deleted between October 2022 and September 2023.

Coinbase has been pursuing internal SEC documents for a long time through the Freedom of Information Act and sued when the regulator denied its requests.

Other Keys

DAT worked: Newly minted digital asset treasury GameStop notched a Q2 loss in its earnings report—but not as bad as it might have been. The company noted its $500 million worth of Bitcoin increased in value to $528 million by the end of the quarter.

Land of the rising BTC: Japanese Bitcoin treasury Metaplanet wants to raise $1.45 billion to buy more BTC. In the announcement, the company reiterated its laser-eyed thesis by pointing to “elevated levels of national debt, prolonged real negative interest rates, and an ongoing depreciation of the yen.”

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Sam Altman Seeks Texts From Shivon Zilis, Elon Musk's Employee/Mother of His Child
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Sam Altman Seeks Texts From Shivon Zilis, Elon Musk’s Employee/Mother of His Child

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Last year, Elon Musk sued his rival Sam Altman’s company, tech superstar OpenAI. In his lawsuit, Musk claimed that the company had violated federal racketeering laws because, having once promised to stay a nonprofit research lab, had since converted itself into a for-profit company. Musk, who initially poured tens of millions of dollars into the startup, claims he was deceived. OpenAI and Altman have since countered that Musk also wanted OpenAI to become a for-profit venture. This week, the legal battle was ratcheted up a notch, as OpenAI sought to bring those close to Musk into the mix.

Business Insider writes that Altman has now asked a judge to order Shivon Zilis and Jared Birchall to turn over key correspondence as part of the legal case.

Zilis, an executive at Musk’s brain-computer interface startup Neuralink, has had four children with Musk via IVF. They first met back in 2016 when Zilis, who formerly worked for OpenAI, joined the company. Birchall, meanwhile, has often been described as the billionaire’s “right-hand man” and his “fixer,” and often seems to be tasked with critical behind-the-scenes affairs (like managing his money), while also dealing with the less savory aspects of managing Musk’s empire (like interfacing with other women that Musk has had children with).

Additionally, Birchall occupies several important executive roles at Musk-related orgs. Specifically, he runs Musk’s family office, Excession, directs the Musk Foundation, and is the CEO of Neuralink. The inclusion of the two Musk allies in the legal case is described thusly:

As part of his defense against Musk’s 2024 racketeering lawsuit, Altman wants a judge in California to order Birchall and Zilis to turn over key texts and emails in 72 hours. If either blows that deadline, they should be required to sit for one additional, preliminary deposition prior to their primary depositions in the case.

The OpenAI CEO’s legal team has noted that communications with Zilis, in particular, should have relevance to the case. BI reports that attorneys have argued, “She was a conduit between Musk and OpenAI’s co-founders on matters central to this case, including discussions about a potential 2017 restructuring that would have given Musk a large equity stake in OpenAI.”

Altman’s targeting of Zilis and Birchall, two people with close personal and professional ties to Musk, could indicate a broader escalation of the legal fight, as both sides seek to gain an advantage. “Birchall and Zilis should not be forced to sit for two depositions each,” Musk’s attorneys have argued. “If their texts and Gmails cannot be produced in time, their depositions should be rescheduled.” Gizmodo reached out to Neuralink, OpenAI, and Tesla for comment.

The lawsuit against OpenAI is the culmination of a long-running feud between the two billionaires. More recently, Musk sued OpenAI again (along with Apple), alleging that the two companies had colluded to exert anticompetitive control over the AI market.

The suit seeks “billions” in damages. “Apple and OpenAI’s exclusive arrangement has made ChatGPT the only generative AI chatbot integrated into the iPhone,” the suit says. “This means that if iPhone users want to use a generative AI chatbot for key tasks on their devices, they have no choice but to use ChatGPT, even if they would prefer to use more innovative and imaginative products like xAI’s Grok.” In the past, OpenAI has characterized the litigation as being “consistent with Mr. Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment.” Musk also previously tried to buy OpenAI, although Altman turned him down.

Where did the feud between Musk and Altman start? God only knows, but one thing’s for sure: it shows no signs of simmering down. In the before times, Altman and Musk were chums and business partners, but that all imploded, and for the past several years, it’s been increasingly bad. Can it all be traced back to the fact that Musk was once a co-founder and board member of OpenAI but now, having acrimoniously fallen out with Altman, must be forced to watch it soar without him? All we really know for sure is that personal animosity has transmogrified into a nasty legal war that could ultimately hurt both men more than it helps anyone.



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Coinbase Says SEC ‘Destroyed’ Gensler Texts, Demands Court Sanctions

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In brief

  • Coinbase has accused the SEC of destroying nearly a year of former Chair Gary Gensler’s text messages.
  • A recent SEC Inspector General report revealed texts from October 2022 to September 2023 were permanently erased during a critical crypto enforcement period.
  • The U.S. exchange wants expedited discovery, sanctions, and immediate production after the SEC failed to search text messages for court-ordered document productions.

Coinbase has accused the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of “destroying” former Chair Gary Gensler’s text messages, with industry observers calling it a “credibility crisis” that could weaken the regulator’s position in future enforcement actions.

“The Gensler SEC destroyed documents they were required to preserve and produce,” Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal tweeted Thursday, alongside a link to the court filing. “We now have proof from the SEC’s own Inspector General.”

A report last week by the SEC’s Office of the Inspector General found that nearly a year of then-Chairman Gary Gensler’s text messages were permanently deleted between October 2022 and September 2023.



The SEC watchdog said the agency employs a policy of remotely wiping devices disconnected from the agency’s network for 45 days.

We’re want expedited discovery, sanctions, and immediate production of all responsive texts. Considering the double-standards of the previous Chair it’s not surprising that the same agency that fined firms billions for record-keeping failures committed the exact same violations.…

— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) September 11, 2025

Coinbase, through third‐party private historical research firm History Associates, has asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to impose sanctions, order expedited discovery, and compel immediate production of all responsive communications. 

The agency’s “destroy-and-delay approach to records must end immediately,” the filing reads, adding the destruction has caused “irreparable harm” that cannot be undone

“The SEC has fined private firms billions for poor recordkeeping, but now stands accused of doing the very same thing itself,” Rishabh Gupta, Director at Web3 platform Trade Dog Group, told Decrypt. “This creates a profound ‘do as I say, not as I do’ problem that severely undermines the SEC’s moral authority.”

The deletion timeline coincided with the FTX collapse, the SEC’s crypto enforcement blitzkrieg, and ongoing Freedom of Information Act litigation, in which Coinbase sought internal agency communications regarding Ethereum regulation and digital asset policy decisions.

The SEC initially denied the requests under law enforcement exemptions, but abandoned that position after Coinbase filed suit in June 2024.

The Inspector General also identified potential record losses from devices belonging to over 40 other senior SEC officials, including 21 devices flagged for confirmed or suspected data destruction.

Had the SEC conducted proper searches when the FOIA requests were submitted in 2023, “the agency could have reviewed and processed those records then, or at least taken steps to preserve them,” before Gensler’s texts were destroyed, the filing reads.

“The reported erasure of key communications raises significant questions around transparency and accountability,” Shiv Pande, CBO at crypto startup BitSave, told Decrypt. “Regulatory positions carry the heavy responsibility of gatekeeping, where decisions must be anchored in fair principles and objective evidence.”

If sanctions are imposed, Gupta said, it would “create a legal precedent” that allows defendants to challenge not only the SEC’s theories but also its “credibility and thoroughness” in handling evidence. 

That, he warned, could “delay or complicate ongoing enforcement actions” as companies push back more aggressively, making settlements harder and forcing the agency to defend its own internal processes.

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Prospective CFTC Chair Releases Private Texts With Winklevoss Twins
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Prospective CFTC Chair Releases Private Texts With Winklevoss Twins

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Brian Quintenz, US President Donald Trump’s pick to chair the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has made public several texts between himself and Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, suggesting reasons why the brothers may have attempted to interfere with his nomination to the agency.

In a Wednesday X post, Quintenz said he had released the texts over concerns that Trump “might have been misled” by the Gemini co-founders. The chain appeared to show Tyler Winklevoss sending Quintenz information on Gemini’s civil case with the CFTC, settled with a $5 million fine in January.

“The CFTC totally abused the deliberative process privilege amongst many other abuses to prevent us from even be [sic] able to defend ourselves fairly in court,” Winklevoss texted to Quintenz on July 25.

Source: Brian Quintenz

According to the prospective CFTC chair, the brothers were looking for certain assurances regarding what they called the agency’s “lawfare trophy hunting,” which he said he wasn’t willing to provide.

Related: CFTC pressured to probe nominee Brian Quintenz over ties to Kalshi

“I believe these texts make it clear what they were after from me, and what I refused to promise,” said Quintenz. “It’s my understanding that after this exchange they contacted the President and asked that my confirmation be paused for reasons other than what is reflected in these texts.”

Cointelegraph reached out to a Gemini spokesperson for comment, but had not received a response at the time of publication.

Senate vote on Quintenz still pending

The texts came just a few days before reports suggested that the Gemini co-founders contacted the White House and asked Trump to reconsider Quintenz’s nomination.

Lawmakers in the Senate Agriculture Committee had been scheduled to question Quintenz in July before the chamber broke for a month-long recess, but delayed the event due to a request from the White House.

The release of the texts comes less than 48 hours before Gemini is expected to begin its initial public offering on Friday. The company is aiming for a $3 billion valuation as part of the offering, but it’s unclear how this information from Quintenz could impact investors.

Magazine: Can Robinhood or Kraken’s tokenized stocks ever be truly decentralized?



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SEC Watchdog Blames Tech Failures for Loss of Gary Gensler’s Texts in 2023

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In brief

  • Gensler’s text messages between October 18, 2022 to September 6, 2023 are now lost.
  • A 45-day wipe policy and a rushed reset led to a permanent deletion, the agency’s watchdog said Wednesday.
  • The loss may affect FOIA responses, with the National Archives being notified of the loss in June.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lost nearly a year of text messages from former Chair Gary Gensler, according to a review by the agency’s Office of the Inspector General released on Wednesday.

The SEC’s OIG is responsible for conducting audits, evaluations, and investigations into the SEC’s programs and operations.

On July 6, 2023, Gary Gensler’s SEC-issued smartphone stopped syncing with the agency’s device management system, even though it “otherwise functioned normally and was used regularly,” the report said.

For the next 62 days, it appeared “inactive,” a status that went unnoticed by IT staff.



A month later, on August 10, the Office of Information Technology introduced a policy to automatically wipe any device that had not connected for 45 days, assuming it was lost or stolen. 

Under that rule, Gensler’s phone was wiped.

When he arrived at SEC headquarters on September 6, 2023, and discovered agency apps missing, Gensler approached staff for help.

Investigators said personnel, unaware of what had occurred, tried to restore the phone and instead performed a factory reset that permanently deleted nearly a year of text messages, covering October 18, 2022, through September 6, 2023.

Missed warnings, poor vendor coordination, and weak change-management practices were also cited as factors that compounded the failure.

The Office of the Inspector General serves as the agency’s independent watchdog under the Inspector General Act of 1978, reporting both to the SEC Chair and to Congress.

Lost legacy

Nearly a year of Gensler’s lost text messages coincided with the SEC’s war on crypto.

In January 2023, the agency charged Genesis and Gemini over unregistered offerings, while lender Nexo agreed to a $45 million settlement.

The following month, it fined Kraken $30 million for its staking service and warned Paxos that its Binance-branded stablecoin could be an unregistered security.

By April, Gensler told Congress that most crypto tokens meet the Howey Test, reinforcing his stance that they fall under securities law. Internal records later revealed the SEC had already labeled Ethereum a security in March 2023.

After his tenure at the SEC, Gensler returned to MIT, where he now teaches and does research on artificial intelligence, financial technology, and public policy.

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Peek Inside the Sacred Jedi Texts From 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi'
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Peek Inside the Sacred Jedi Texts From ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’

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The Star Wars sequel trilogy remains a hot topic for Star Wars fans, young and old. No matter where you stand on the three films, though, one thing we can probably all agree on is the one prop from the series that we’d most like to hold in our hands and explore: the sacred Jedi texts.

Revealed in Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, the Jedi texts are stored on Ahch-To and watched over by Luke Skywalker after he leaves the Jedi order and the Force behind him. They’re the last remnants of the teachings and history of the Jedi way, something that has long been discussed and battled over in the course of the series. Luke himself remains unclear about their teachings and, despite trying to destroy them, they end up in Rey’s possession by the end of the film. What’s next for those texts, we do not yet know but we now can finally get a good glimpse inside them.

The official Star Wars website recently posted about the props that were created for the films. Forty different books were designed and conceived, from which director Rian Johnson selected 10 for the actual movie. Of those, only one gets shown off in the film, and that book itself took about two weeks to make. It not only includes the page we briefly see in the film but several others too. Pages that existed on set but were never seen. Until now.

Here are a few images of the sacred Jedi texts and their interior pages from StarWars.com.

An image of the Jedi text prop. – Lucasfilm Concept art of some of the interior pages. – Lucasfilm Jedi text concept art. – Lucasfilm The prop from the film. – Lucasfilm

The prop clearly still exists, so the question then becomes, will we see it again? Will these texts, which we last saw in Rey’s possession, play a role in how she aims to start a New Jedi Order? Or will Rey’s New Jedi Order go against the teachings in these books? Those clearly didn’t work, as now, almost every Jedi is extinct.

To read more and see more images, head over to StarWars.com. Daisy Ridley’s return to the Star Wars universe, directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, is still without a release date.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.



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