Hard times for the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, Binance. While Reuters reported about their cybercrime facilitating activities, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigates whether Binance Holdings Ltd broke securities rules by selling its BNB token during its initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017, Bloomberg reported. The agency is examining whether the 2017 initial coin offering was a sale of a security that should have been registered with the SEC. Additionally, the regulator allegedly investigates insider trading and Binance‘s corporate structure.
In a statement, Binance said it would “not be appropriate for us to comment on our ongoing conversations with regulators,” adding these include “education, assistance, and voluntary responses to information requests.” The company added that it works with authorities and will keep on meeting “all requirements set by regulators.”
Beyond BNB, the regulator is also reportedly looking for possible trading abuses by Binance insiders and, additionally, whether Binance.US, the company’s American affiliate formed in 2019, is actually really separated from the globally acting Binance. However, Binance maintained that Binance.com and Binance.US “are separate entities.” The US branch would be a separate trading platform that services US clients by offering products and services that are compliant with US federal and state regulations.
