by • The U.S. SEC has filed a lawsuit against Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao for violating securities laws by offering unregistered securities in the form of its now-paused BUSD stablecoin and its native token BNB, as well as other products such as Simple Earn and BNB Vault.
• It is also alleged that funds from the global platform and US-based crypto platforms were co-mingled on multiple occasions, which would be a violation of US securities law.
• Additionally, Reuters reported that Binance had commingled customer funds with corporate revenue in 2020 and 2021 on accounts held at Silvergate Bank and linked to Zhao.
SEC Lawsuit Against Binance
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against digital asset exchange giant, Binance, along with its U.S.-based platform and CEO Changpeng Zhao on June 5th in a Washington D.C federal district court for allegedly violating securities laws by offering unregistered securities such as its now-paused BUSD stablecoin and its native token BNB (BNB). The SEC also deemed Simple Earn, BNB Vault products and staking programs as violations of securities law.
Failure To Register As An Exchange
The SEC further alleged that both the global entity of Binace along with its legal company, BAM Trading failed to register as an exchange or broker/clearing agency according to US regulations; naming Zhao personally as “controlling person” within the company. Additionally nine crypto tokens trading on the platform were identified by the SEC to be classified as securities including Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), Filecoin (FIL), Cosmos (ATOM), The Sandbox (SAND), Decentraland (MANA), Algorand (ALGO) Axie Infinity(AXS) and Coti(COTI).
Reuters Report On Commingling Customer Funds
This comes shortly after a Reuters report alleging that the exchange was comingling customer funds with corporate revenue in 2020 and 2021 daily basis on accounts held at Silvergate Bank . According to three insiders familiar with the crypto exchanges finances these amounts reached into billions of dollars; many of these accounts were linked directly to Zhao himself . At the time ,Binance denied these claims calling it conspiracy theory only for them to be included later in their lawsuit against them by SEC weeks later.
Implications Of The Lawsuit
This lawsuit could have wide ranging implications for not only binance but also all other digital asset exchanges across the globe ; forcing them to reassess their operations within each jurisdiction they operate . Furthermore this could possibly dent Binances plans for global expansion depending on how serious the charges are proven out to be .
Conclusion
In conclusion , this case serves as yet another reminder about importance compliance when operating any type of business related finances especially within cryptocurrency space where regulations are still new or unclear . It will definitely be interesting to see how this case plays out in upcoming days or weeks given importance of defendant involved here i:e world’s largest digital asset exchange ,Biance
