Binance.US Suspends USD Deposits After SEC Lawsuit, Won’t Work With US Banking Partners
In the latest development, Binance.US announced that it will cut ties with its US banking partners after its recent fallout with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The US arm of crypto exchange Binance sent an email to customers adding that its banking and payments partners have recently singled to cut ties and pause the USD fiat channels from June 13, next week onwards.
In its long Twitter post, Binance wrote: “The SEC has taken to using extremely aggressive and intimidating tactics in its pursuit of an ideological campaign against the American digital asset industry. Binance.US and our business partners have not been spared in the use of these tactics, which has created challenges for the banks with whom we work”.
Binance said that this move to suspend USD deposits will help them protect their customers and the trading platform. Binance said that its priority has always been its customers and these proactive measures will help them transition to a crypto-only exchange.
“To be clear, we maintain 1:1 reserves for all customer assets. Any downtime in processing withdrawals may be the result of elevated volumes and weekend bank closures. Moreover, trading, staking, deposits and withdrawals in crypto remain fully operational,” added Binance.
Binance.US called the SEC’s attacks as meritless and that it shall continue to vigorously defend itself, its customers, and the overall crypto industry. Earlier this week on Monday, US SEC sued Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao alleging mishandling customer funds, misleading investors and regulators, and breaking securities rules.
On the very next day, the SEC also pushed the court for an emergency order to “prevent the dissipation of available assets for any judgment, given the Defendants’ years of violative conduct, disregard of the laws of the United States.”
This is not the first time that Binance is cutting ties with its banking partners. Last month in May, Binance Australia announced its decision to suspend all AUD trading pairs following the regulatory action by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in April 2023.
Soon after the SEC action, the crypto market entered into a strong selling pressure. Altcoins named by the SEC as securities such as BNB, ADA, SOL, and MATIC have undergone the most correction.
This week, the SEC increased its efforts to regulate the crypto industry by taking action against both Binance and Coinbase. The SEC filed a lawsuit against Coinbase, accusing it of operating an illegal exchange. In response, Coinbase has strongly denied the SEC's claims and expressed its readiness to defend itself in court, even up to the Supreme Court if necessary.