Several Binance.US Trading Pairs Get the Axe Amid SEC Scrutiny

The hammer has come down on Binance.US as the exchange begins to pull crypto trading pairs from its listings.

On June 7, Binance.US stated that it would remove select BTC and BUSD advanced trading pairs on June 8, 2023. The move follows enforcement action by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which alleged the firm had violated securities laws.

Binance.US Trading Under The Hammer

The original delisting bulletin included a large number of USDT trading pairs. However, the announcement was updated a couple of hours ago with:

“Following community feedback, Binance.US will no longer remove any USDT Advanced Trading pairs. All cryptocurrencies and USDT pairs remain available to trade. Only select BTC and BUSD Advanced Trading pairs below will be removed.”

The list of Bitcoin trading pairs to be delisted included ATOM/BTC, BCH/BTC, DOT/BTC, LRC/BTC, MANA/BTC, UNI/BTC, VET/BTC, and XTZ/BTC.

It also stated that two Binance USD listings would be removed: HBAR/BUSD and ONE/BUSD.

Binance.US added that it was streamlining its ‘Buy, Sell & Convert’ offering. Furthermore, the firm has paused its OTC Trading Portal.

“Your assets remain safe and secure with Binance.US, and deposits and withdrawals continue to function as normal,” it added.

In its filing, the SEC labeled a large number of crypto assets as securities. These include BNB, BUSD, ATOM, COTI, SOL, ADA, MATIC, FIL, SAND, MANA, ALGO, and AXS.

However, these assets have not been officially classed as securities since Congress has not rolled out any legislation regarding the asset class.

On June 7, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was hit with a summons by a U.S. court. He has 21 days to respond but does not have to appear in person as he is not a U.S. citizen.

The SEC has accused Binance and CZ of a raft of violations. These include misleading investors, lying about trading controls, commingling customer assets, and manipulative trading. Furthermore, it filed an emergency request to freeze Binance.US assets earlier this week.

However, the regulator has no jurisdiction over Binance Global as it is not a U.S. company.

BNB Price Suffers

The enforcement action has had the biggest impact on Binance’s own BNB coin. The exchange token has dropped a further 7.4% on the day in a fall to $257 at the time of writing.

Since the lawsuit was issued earlier this week, BNB has lost 16% of its value.

Nevertheless, the asset is currently down 62.5% from its May 2021 peak of $686. It is still faring much better than its crypto brethren despite U.S. regulators’ efforts to quash the company.

According to on-chain data, outflows from the global exchange have not been that drastic either.