Binance recently halted trades across several Binance Coin (BNB) and Ethereum (ETH) token pairs in a surprise move that came shortly after the company was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week. On Monday, Binance announced it had ended trading for more than a dozen pairs involving its native BNB token, the now-defunct Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin, and five pairs involving ETH. The affected trades began to cease at 11:00 p.m. EST on Sunday, with the rest frozen by 4 a.m. EST Monday morning.
Users on Binance’s international exchange were assured they could continue trading in the affected currencies as part of other pairs on the platform. However, they were advised to cancel their trading bots before removals were completed to avoid potential losses. Binance did not explicitly connect these announcements to its response to the SEC lawsuit.
This move follows last Wednesday’s decision by Binance US to eliminate more than forty crypto trading pairs, primarily with the stablecoin Tether (USDT). Other tokens paired with Bitcoin and BUSD were also impacted. Interestingly, trades involving token pairs with Solana (SOL) and Polygon (MATIC) were left untouched on the exchange, despite the SEC listing them as unregistered securities in their lawsuit against Binance.
A day later, Binance US announced that its banking service providers would be pausing fiat currency (US dollar) withdrawals starting as early as June 13. As a result, the platform would operate as a “crypto-only exchange” until new partners could be found. Crypto-based services, including staking products that the SEC also flagged in its lawsuit, would remain operational.
The SEC’s June 5 lawsuit accuses Binance and its founder CEO Changpeng Zhao of 13 counts of securities law violations. These include failing to register as an exchange and engaging in unregistered crypto transactions, among other allegations. Binance denies any wrongdoing and accuses the SEC of waging an “ideological campaign” against the cryptocurrency industry by targeting major companies like itself.
Although the connection between the halted trades and the SEC lawsuit remains uncertain, these moves signal potential turbulence and complications for both Binance and its users. Crypto enthusiasts should keep a close eye on developments as the consequences of this ongoing legal battle unfold.
Source: Decrypt
