According to the regulator, Binance failed to register as a securities exchange and operated illegally in the United States.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed suit against Binance, its U.S. platform and CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) in the District Court for the District of Columbia on June 5.
4.
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) June 5, 2023
Our team is all standing by, ensuring systems are stable, including withdrawals, and deposits.
We will issue a response once we see the compliant. Haven't seen it yet. Media gets the info before we do.
The U.S. regulator pressed 13 charges against Binance, including unregistered offers and sales of the BNB (BNB) and BUSD tokens, the Simple Earn and BNB Vault products and its staking program. In addition, the SEC alleges in the suit that Binance failed to register its Binance.com platform as an exchange or a broker-dealer clearing agency. Further, it claimed Binance and BAM Trading failed to register Binance.US as an exchange, broker and clearing agency. CZ was sued as a "controlling person."
The SEC is demanding permanent enjoinment on Binance and CZ from further activities, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with interest and financial penalties
The suit claimed that tokens traded on the Binance exchange were securities. Those tokens are BNB, BUSD, SOL, ADA, MATIC, FIL, ATOM, SAND, MANA, ALGO, AXS, and COTI.
This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.
