Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), are currently under fire once again. Bloomberg has in a new article revealed that the world’s largest crypto exchange and CZ have been sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Binance also had an indictment hanging from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for violating derivatives trading rules in the United States, but now the baton has been passed to the SEC to make the stock sweat.
Binance charge
The SEC has filed thirteen charges against Binance, including unregistered offers and sales of BNB (BNB) and BUSD tokens, the Simple Earn and BNB Vault products, and the staking program. In addition, the financial regulator claims that Binance has incorrectly registered its Binance.com platform and its American branch, Binance.US, as a crypto exchange.
CZ was also not spared by the watchdog: he has been charged as a so-called ”controlling person”.
CZ labeled the news, as he has done many times this year, as FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt). He did this in his traditional way by tweeting a “4,” referencing an earlier tweet in January where he shared his goals for the year ahead.
4.
Our team is all standing by, ensuring systems are stable, including withdrawals, and deposits.
We will issue a response once we see the compliant. Haven’t seen it yet. Media gets the info before we do.
🙏
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) June 5, 2023
In his tweet, he also indicated that his team is ready to ensure that systems are stable, including withdrawals and deposits. He also stated that he and his team have not yet seen the charges and will comment when they do.
Bitcoin price drops
As a direct result of the SEC’s indictment, bitcoin’s price plummeted. While bitcoin (BTC) has been trading just above $27,000 for several days, the price is now turning dark red. Since the news came out, the share price has already fallen by more than 5 percent. While some form of panic is currently entering the crypto market, the price tops out at $25,750 at the time of writing