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The SEC appears to have won a key foothold in its quest to subdue the crypto exchange Binance, which just lost its ability to process deposits in US dollars.
The SEC has taken to using extremely aggressive and intimidating tactics in its pursuit of an ideological campaign against the American digital asset industry. https://t.co/AZwoBOgsqS and our business partners have not been spared in the use of these tactics, which has created… pic.twitter.com/rlIe6swIoY
— Binance.US 🇺🇸 (@BinanceUS) June 9, 2023
As per a tweet by Binance US, the crypto exchange is halting all USD deposits effective June 13. While explaining the rationale behind this move, the exchange noted:
"As a result, in an effort to protect our customers and platform, today we are suspending USD deposits and notifying customers that our banking partners are preparing to pause fiat (USD) withdrawal channels as early as June 13, 2023. We encourage customers to take appropriate action with their USD."
Bear in mind that customers will continue to have the ability to withdraw their funds from Binance US.
Today's development comes after the SEC formally lobbed 13 charges against Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), earlier this week, accusing the world's largest crypto exchange of subverting established rules to allow high-net-worth individuals in the US to access Binance's offshore services, comingling of customer and corporate assets and funds, wash trading via affiliated entities, lack of KYC, and outright embezzlement on the part of Binance's CEO. Additionally, the apex financial regulator in the US has now declared some of the most popular tokens as "unregistered securities," thereby attempting to bring the entire crypto sphere under its own jurisdiction.
Thereafter, on June 06, the SEC filed a restraining order against Binance, requesting the presiding judge to freeze the assets of Binance US while exempting customer withdrawals.
Interestingly, the lawyers working for the crypto exchange had alleged on June 07 that the SEC Chair, Gary Gensler, had approached the exchange in 2019 and offered to serve as its advisor. At the time, Gensler was teaching at MIT's Sloan School of Management. However, as per a separate report from the Wall Street Journal, it appears that Binance had approached Gensler first, and that too back in 2018.
The optics around this brewing fight between the SEC and Binance continue to deteriorate by the hour. So far, it seems that the apex US financial regulator retains the upper hand.
