According to a Reuters report, court documents show that Binance, Binance.US, and the U.S. SEC have reached an agreement to restrict access to customer funds to only Binance.US employees. This agreement still requires approval from the federal judge overseeing the case. Binance.US will ensure that no officials from Binance Holdings have access to private keys for its various wallets or root access to Binance.US’s Amazon Web Services tools.
The proposed agreement follows the SEC’s lawsuit against Binance, its CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), and the operator of Binance.US. This lawsuit represents an intensified regulatory crackdown on the industry by U.S. regulators. Coinbase, a major U.S. exchange, also faced a lawsuit from the SEC.
At the time of this rewrite, Binance.US and the SEC had not responded immediately to Reuters’ request for comment. Last week, the U.S. affiliate of Binance suspended dollar deposits and set a deadline of June 13 for customers to withdraw their dollar funds after the SEC requested a court order to freeze Binance‘s assets.
The proposed agreement includes additional provisions such as creating new crypto wallets that are inaccessible to employees of the global exchange, providing further information to the SEC, and agreeing to an expedited discovery schedule, as stated in the filings.
The proposed deal responds to an SEC motion to freeze all of Binance.US‘s assets while it pursues the charges. The regulator said it was concerned that funds could be moved offshore or records destroyed if it was not granted a temporary restraining order (TRO).
