3 days ago
SEC drops lawsuit against crypto giant Binance
The US Securities and Exchange Commission will drop its long-running lawsuit against crypto exchange Binance in the regulator's latest backdown from policing the crypto industry.
A joint motion filed on May 29 by the SEC, Binance and its co-founder Changpeng Zhao asked a Washington, DC, federal court to allow the regulator's complaint that it filed in June 2023 to be dismissed.
The motion mentioned the SEC's Crypto Task Force 'might impact and facilitate the potential resolution of this litigation' and that the regulator believed dropping the suit was appropriate 'in the exercise of its discretion and as a policy matter.'
The motion also bids for the lawsuit to be dropped with prejudice, meaning it cannot be filed again.
The SEC and Binance had paused the action in February, and again in April, saying that the agency's crypto unit could see the agency eventually drop the case.
The SEC sued Binance, Zhao and its US-based arm, BAM Trading, in June 2023, alleging they violated securities law, mishandled customer funds and misled customers.
Binance and Zhao settled a separate case with the Department of Justice in November 2023, agreeing to pay a $4.3 billion fine and admitting that the company violated sanctions, was an unlicensed money transmitter and failed to implement appropriate Anti-Money Laundering measures.
As part of the deal, Zhao stepped down as Binance's CEO and copped to a money laundering charge. He was later sentenced to four months in prison in April 2024.
Binance said on X that the latest joint motion was a 'huge win for crypto' and thanked President Donald Trump and SEC chair Paul Atkins 'for pushing back against regulation by enforcement.'
SEC's latest crypto backdown
The motion is the SEC's latest step away from its bid to regulate crypto under the Trump administration, with the agency dropping multiple enforcement actions it filed against crypto firms under the Biden administration.
The SEC has also abandoned or settled complaints against Coinbase, Consensus and Kraken, among others, and has ended investigations into the likes of Circle, Immutable and OpenSea.
Trump has installed former crypto lobbyist Atkins as head of the agency. Atkins has said he plans to create a framework for digital assets, and the SEC has set up a series of roundtables with the industry to discuss policy.
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