2023-06-10 21:00:08
The US federal authorities had clearly shown in February their desire to bring order to the cryptocurrency market, after the resounding bankruptcy of FTX, a platform that had long passed through the cracks of the regulatory net.
Three months later, a new offensive began, led by Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a longtime slayer of “crypto”.
Mr. Gensler thus detailed on Monday June 5 a list of 13 grievances against Binance, the main global platform for crypto-asset exchanges, as well as its subsidiary in the United States and its managing director, the very media-savvy Changpeng Zhao. In a 136-page document, he accuses them pell-mell of violating stock market regulations, circumventing their own transaction control mechanisms, manipulating prices and misleading investors. Under these conditions, supports the SEC, “The public should be wary of investing any of their hard-earned assets on these illegal platforms”.
Punitive approach
The Binance file barely opened, the Wall Street policeman unveiled a second complaint on Tuesday, June 6, which targets Coinbase, another major “crypto” platform, which it accuses of having allowed American investors to make transactions on assets which are in his eyes financial securities but which have never been recorded as such.
Coinbase promises to continue operations for now, while regretting the purely punitive approach chosen by the SEC “in the absence of clear rules in the digital asset sector”.
The situation is more delicate for Binance: its subsidiary in the United States, Binance. US, announced Thursday, June 8 to suspend dollar deposits from its customers, explaining that its partner banks were preparing to interrupt dollar withdrawals from June 13. Clearly, its clients in the United States will soon no longer be able to liquidate their positions in crypto-assets to recover their stake in greenbacks. A forced brake on the activity which results, according to the company, from “the extremely aggressive and intimidating tactics of the SEC as part of an ideological campaign”.
The impact of Binance’s announcement. US Should Be Limited: According to specialist data provider CCData, Binance’s trading volumes. US represented in May only 5.86 billion dollars (5.44 billion euros), against 212 billion for Binance.com, which centralizes the non-American activities of the group. But the lawsuits launched by the SEC only amplify a significant drop in activity since March, which CCData puts at 26% for Binance for the month of May alone.
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