The SEC Has Thrown The Kitchen Sink at Binance

TL;DR

• On Monday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ​sued Binance​ and it's CEO, CZ on allegations of violating federal securities laws.

• This case arises from Defendants’ blatant disregard of the federal securities laws and the investor and market protections these laws provide.

• This isn't the first, and it certainly won't be the last attack on the crypto industry by the SEC. Here's hoping it doesn't slow innovation, or remove the opportunities for crypto in the US entirely.

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Uh-oh...The SEC are back at it - this time, targeting Binance.

On Monday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ​sued Binance​ and it's CEO, CZ on allegations of violating federal securities laws.

Before we go out making assumptions, let's discuss the facts.

There are 13 charges, some of which include: the unregistered offer and sale of crypto assets, failure to restrict U.S. investors from accessing Binance.com, and operating as an unregistered exchange, broker, and clearing agency.

The first line of the filing by the SEC reads:

This case arises from Defendants’ blatant disregard of the federal securities laws and the investor and market protections these laws provide. In so doing, Defendants have enriched themselves by billions of U.S. dollars while placing investors’ assets at significant risk.

(Hefty stuff!)

In a press conference, our frenemy, SEC Chair Gary Gensler, said that Binance "attempted to evade U.S. securities laws by announcing sham controls that they disregarded behind the scenes" in a bid to keep big American investors using the platform.

The SEC went on to claim that Solana, Polygon, Cardano, and several other coins are securities in the lawsuit.

(Basically, with these, plus historical Ethereum charges, they've targeted every major crypto project besides Bitcoin).

On one hand, we get it, this is their job - to regulate and enforce federal securities laws in the US.

But on the other hand, it feels like they've simply thrown the kitchen sink at Binance, hoping something will stick.

So far CZ's reaction (on ​Twitter​) has been that of: "We will issue a response once we see the complaint. Haven't seen it yet. Media gets the info before we do."

This isn't the first, and it certainly won't be the last attack on the crypto industry by the SEC.

Here's hoping it doesn't slow innovation, or remove the opportunities for crypto in the US entirely.