SEC and Binance.US Deal Secures Court Approval
- The court-mandated negotiation deal between Binance.US and SEC have been approved by Judge Amy Jackson.
- The deal will temporarily limit access to customer funds exclusively to Binance.US employees.
- Customers will be able to withdraw their funds at any time during this period.
- It said that “the SEC does not have the goods to substantiate their most damaging allegations.”
The United States arm of the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, Binance.US, has negotiated a deal with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has now been approved by Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District Court for the District of Columbia. As per reports, the deal was approved on June 16.
According to the official agreement, the deal will temporarily limit access to customer funds exclusively to Binance.US employees. However, it is crucial to note that the customers of the US exchange will have the authority to fully withdraw their funds during this period. The CEO of the main exchange, Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, noted that Binance.US and the SEC resolved the disagreement “on mutually acceptable terms.”
Moreover, the regulator’s request to grant a TRO against Binance.US was denied by the judge, which is a rare occasion. CZ noted that by not allowing a TRO against his firm’s US business due to a lack of evidence of misuse of customers’ funds, Judge Berman sent a clear message to regulators across the globe that “the SEC does not have the goods to substantiate their most damaging allegations.”
“We are pleased to inform you that the Court did not grant the SEC’s request for a TRO and freeze of assets on our platform, which was clearly unjustified by both the facts and the law,” Binance.US said on Twitter.
Binance.US also confirmed in their Twitter post that the lawyers representing the SEC conceded in court that they have no evidence to support their claims that the crypto exchange mismanaged users’ funds.
It is crucial to mention here that the deal between the two entities also prevents passing access to Binance global officials to the private keys of wallets, hardware wallets, or root access to Binance.US’s Amazon Web Services tools.
The agreement also required the US-based exchange to take immediate action to ensure “a verified written accounting” of accounts tied to the firm that are valued at more than $1,000. As reported earlier by BitcoinWisdom, the SEC recently filed an emergency motion for a restraining order against Binance, which prevents the firm from destroying, altering, or concealing records and sets conditions on discovery.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
