Binance lawsuit adds another 10 cryptos to SEC securities list
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has confirmed that following its lawsuit against leading crypto exchange Binance, it will now class 61 digital assets as securities. This means that the regulator’s remit will now span more than $115 million of crypto.
During the case, the SEC added 10 cryptos to its securities list: BNB, Solana, Polygon, Cardano, Binance USD, Cosmos, Decentraland, Axie Infinity, Sandbox, and COTI.
This comes just months after it added 16 assets to the list when it charged Terraform Labs with fraud back in February. As reported by Cointelegraph, as a result of this action, the likes of Terra Luna Classic, Terra Classic USD, and Mirror Protocol are now classed by the regulator as securities. This is in addition to another 13 Mirrored Assets (mAssets) that copy the price of stocks including Tesla and Apple.
Read more: Here’s why the SEC never classified ether as a security
The SEC’s most recent case alleges that Binance operated unregistered exchanges, misrepresented trading controls and oversight on the Binance US platform, and offered unregistered securities.
Among the 13 specific charges leveled at Binance, the SEC claims that Binance and its chief exec Changpeng Zhao (CZ):
- Subverted the company’s own controls to allow high-value US customers to continue trading on Binance.com. This is despite Zhao and Binance publicly claiming that US customers were restricted from transacting on the platform.
- Secretly controlled Binance US’s operations behind the scenes despite previously stating that the platform was created as a separate, independent platform for US investors.
- Controlled and commingled customer assets and diverted them to various entities, including to one owned and controlled by Zhao called Sigma Chain.
The SEC’s latest case is giving crypto markets the fear
The SEC’s case against Binance could potentially hold wide-reaching implications for the crypto space. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index, which measures market sentiment towards the crypto market, has hit “fear” levels not seen since March 11. These previous lows were triggered when Circle’s USD coin briefly de-pegged.
Read more: Binance controlled its US arm’s bank accounts for two years: Reuters
The index takes into account a range of factors, including trading volume, price volatility, and momentum, all of which could be impacted following the dip in overall crypto value that has accompanied the SEC’s latest move.
Major cryptos such as bitcoin and ether have dipped over 4% and 3% respectively, while altcoins Cardano and Solana have both fallen by more than 6%.
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