SEC former chairman Gary Gensler's texts went missing during his term! The timing coincides with the enforcement actions against Coinbase and Binance.

Former SEC Chairman Gensler's text messages from a year were all lost due to an IT error, raising concerns about regulatory integrity in Congress and forcing the SEC to accelerate reforms (Background: The U.S. SEC confirms that "DePIN Token" is outside its jurisdiction: not classified under securities law) (Background: SEC fires a shot! Suspends stock trading of crypto reserve companies QMMM and SDM: involved in price manipulation and speculation) Former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler's text message records from October 2022 to September 2023 have been deemed "permanently lost" by the SEC's Office of Inspector General (OIG). The timing coincides with the SEC's significant enforcement actions against crypto exchanges like Coinbase and Binance, and the sudden absence of these records has cast a shadow over the regulatory decision-making process, quickly becoming a new focus for Congressional Republicans. How a technical error turned into a congressional storm According to the OIG report, the SEC's technology office had originally set a "45-day automatic clearance for inactivity" policy, lacked backups, and directly executed a "factory reset" process during mobile repairs, ultimately leading to data loss. The report bluntly stated: "A series of avoidable IT errors led to the disappearance of the text messages." After the news broke, Republican Representatives French Hill and Dan Meuser immediately wrote to current Chairman Paul Atkins, questioning whether the SEC complied with federal record-keeping regulations, and pointed out that Gensler had previously used personal email to handle official business during his tenure at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, suspecting this was a "habit of ignoring transparency." Legal battles and the rebound from the crypto industry The data gap has also impacted businesses currently entangled in litigation with the SEC. Coinbase has requested a federal court to compel the search for deleted communications, hoping to clarify whether the regulatory approach is biased. Many crypto practitioners believe that if the missing messages involve interactions with external stakeholders, it could undermine the existing lawsuit foundation. At the same time, this incident once again challenges the SEC's credibility as the "gatekeeper" of the financial market; the core principle of the federal record-keeping law is to ensure that communications of government officials are traceable, and this principle is now effectively undermined. SEC patches the loophole Under pressure, the SEC has announced a ban on the text messaging function for most employees' phones and has reported the loss to the National Archives (NARA). The agency has committed to accelerating the implementation of regular backups, off-site storage, and requiring multi-layer reviews before executing high-risk repairs. Despite taking frequent actions, Congressional Republicans still plan to expand the investigation and even consider legislation requiring all federal units to establish stricter standards for digital records. As the Trump administration comes into office in 2025, the White House's demand for transparency is bound to increase, and the new regulations may become a common threshold for various agencies. Warnings from digital governance and follow-up observations The loss of Gensler's text messages shows that without rigorous processes, any seemingly routine IT operation can incur a high cost in trust. The crypto market is rapidly changing, and every message judgment by regulatory agencies affects capital flow; communication records are both the "black box" of policy formation and the only window for external assessment of fairness. Although the SEC has begun to patch up, the incident has exposed the structural weaknesses of the government in the digital wave. Future observation focuses include: whether backup mechanisms are effective, whether external audits become routine, and whether Congress will legislate to incorporate "traceability" into the digital tool design of all officials. Only by achieving a new balance between efficiency and transparency can regulators regain market trust. Related reports SEC's new chairman supports "minimal regulation": considers replacing quarterly corporate reports with semi-annual reports, investors worry about transparency being compromised. Is the DAT speculation over? SEC investigates 200 "crypto treasury companies": involved in insider trading. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins reiterates building a "global cryptocurrency capital": returning to regulatory mission, promoting Crypto+AI financial innovation. <SEC former chairman Gary Gensler's messages disappeared during the time of enforcement against Coinbase and Binance> This article was first published in BlockTempo, the most influential blockchain news media.