By
Anisha Pandey
July 4th, 2024
Like a couple of other crypto exchanges, Binance and its then-CEO Changpeng Zhao were indicted by the SEC in June 2023.
Binance.US, the United States arm of leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has voiced readiness to take on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in its lawsuit. Binance.US revealed its position about the Friday Court ruling in an X post where it stated that it “looks forward” to the SEC case moving to further discovery.
“Notably, the SEC has yet to identify any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Binance.US throughout the extensive, 11-month discovery process in which we have participated to date,” the top digital asset service provider wrote on X.
Federal Judge Ruling on SEC vs Binance.US
Noteworthy, Judge Amy Berman Jackson dismissed part of the SEC lawsuit against Binance.US last week while she allowed some others to proceed. One of the dismissed cases is the SEC’s claim that BNB is traded illegally on secondary markets. The other dismissed charges are that all sales related to the Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin and the SEC’s claims related to Binance’s passive income feature “Simple Earn”.
The upheld charges have to do with claims against Binance’s staking scheme, the sale of BNB after its initial coin offering, and anti-fraud. This is in addition to charges against Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao, as a “control person”. Generally, the charges that were left to proceed centered around sales of unregistered investment products and violation of anti-fraud provisions.
Binance.US’ X post is in response to this decision from Judge Jackson.
On Friday, the Court decided that the SEC’s case against https://t.co/AZwoBOh0gq will continue. We were prepared for this and look forward to having this case move forward in the judicial process.https://t.co/AZwoBOh0gq was established with the express purpose of serving United…
— Binance.US 🇺🇸 (@BinanceUS) July 1, 2024
The exchange highlighted how it has constantly put in intentional effort and “limited guidance” provided by the SEC to comply with regulations. It went on to talk about how unfortunate it is that the exchange has fallen victim to the Commission’s regulation-by-enforcement approach.
The SEC Suit against Binance and CZ
Like a couple of other crypto exchanges, Binance and its then-CEO Changpeng Zhao were indicted by the SEC in June 2023. The regulator listed some charges against the trading platform including the sales of unregistered investments. Similarly to FTX, Binance was accused of commingling company and customer assets, misuse of customer funds, and possible market manipulation of native tokens.
Consequently, the regulator requested immediate “verified” accounting of Binance and Binance.US’s finances. It also asked that Binance assets be frozen and repatriated. The SEC asked for Binance.US document preservation and the appointment of a receiver for Binance assets. At the time, the exchange noted that the regulator only wanted to make headlines with the charges.
Apart from the SEC, Binance also faced regulatory challenges with the US Department of Justice (DOJ), a case that eventually led to its leadership restructuring. The DOJ brought up allegations of money laundering, bank fraud, and the violation of US sanctions laws against the exchange and requested $4.3 billion as a settlement.
Also, CZ pled guilty to the charges levied against him and stepped down from his position as CEO of the exchange. He is currently serving a four-month jail term.