2023-06-17 16:11:00
The American stock market policeman, the SEC, will secure the funds of American customers of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange platform, which it has sued. The goal is for them to be able to withdraw their money and prevent these assets from leaving the United States.
Saturday’s announcement comes amid the SEC’s early June lawsuit against Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and its boss, Changpeng Zhao, for regulatory evasion. .
The court in the federal capital of the United States, Washington, responsible for the case, issued an order on Saturday, after reaching an agreement with Binance and Changpeng Zhao. In particular, they are asked to repatriate the assets of the platform’s American customers to the United States.
These are the funds the SEC says in its statement it wants to secure, adding that the court order ‘also prohibits’ Binance and Changpeng Zhao ‘from spending company assets other than in the ordinary course of business. business’.
‘Given that Changpeng Zhao and Binance control platform client assets and have been able to mix client assets or misappropriate client assets as they please, (…) these prohibitions are essential to protect investors’ assets’, said Gurbir Grewal, an SEC official, quoted in the statement.
He added that the SEC has ensured ‘that US clients will be able to withdraw their assets from the platform’.
Opposition
Binance had announced on June 8 the suspension of deposits in dollars and encouraged its customers to withdraw their funds from its accounts, after its subpoena by the SEC. This accuses him in particular of having let American residents use his platform when the company was not registered with the American authorities, nor its own cryptocurrencies, such as BNB (Binance Coin), or its other financial products.
The regulator also claims that contrary to what Binance has publicly argued, the American subsidiary as well as the funds deposited there by customers were controlled by the parent company.
The SEC had asked the courts to freeze assets affiliated with the company and Changpeng Zhao, previously seen as the arch-rival of fallen cryptocurrency star Sam Bankman-Fried, former boss of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
The American financial products regulatory authority, the CFTC, had already assigned the platform at the end of March for similar reasons.
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