According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Binance.US has failed to reply to significant questions concerning customer assets and other crucial facets of an ongoing inquiry.
In a joint status report submitted to a Washington, D.C. District Court on March 5, the SEC voiced concerns that BAM Trading Services, the company that runs Binance.US, had yet to respond to questions about the custody of customer funds satisfactorily.
To speed up the discovery process, the regulatory authority has asked the court for help. The SEC claims that Binance.US has demonstrated unwillingness or an inability to fulfill fundamental discovery requirements, such as providing required attachments and metadata pertaining to requested documents.
Whether Binance’s non-U.S. arm workers had access to Binance.US client assets is a key topic in the inquiry; according to the SEC, Binance.US has not sufficiently addressed this issue.
Binance.US disputes the SEC’s accusations, claiming to have complied with all information requests, calling them “exceptionally broad.” The company contends that the accusations made about customer assets are unfounded and asserts that it has fulfilled its regulatory requirements by submitting thousands of papers, including monthly reports and oath-taking statements, about its asset custody procedures.
Binance.US also emphasized its cooperation with multiple shared custody device inspections involving client assets. Citing complete compliance with the regulator’s demands, Binance.US has asked the court to end the expedited discovery process in response to the SEC’s ongoing inquiry.
Concerns about the real effects of the SEC’s activities, including the loss of banking partners and a decline in active users, have also been expressed by the company. Due to these difficulties, the company has had to make substantial operational adjustments, which include letting go of almost 200 workers—roughly two-thirds of its workforce—since June 2023.
Binance.US COO Christopher Blodgett blamed the SEC’s actions for a significant drop in income and an increase in operating and legal expenses, which led to personnel reductions.
This disagreement comes after the SEC filed a more extensive lawsuit in June 2023 against Binance, Binance.US, and their founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao. They are accused of selling unregistered securities and combining client assets with those of a different business under Zhao’s control.
On November 21, Binance and the U.S. Department of Justice settled in a different legal case. Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion to resolve violations of U.S. anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism funding legislation.
Zhao entered a guilty plea to money laundering charges as part of the settlement, and as a result, he will be sentenced on April 3 and might spend up to 18 months behind bars.