Gary Gensler News

Binance Holdings Ltd., and its US affiliates, are being charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for multiple offenses, months after being charged separately by another US regulator. 

The stock of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbaseplunged more than 20% at the open on June 6. At the time of publication, shares have pared some losses and are currently trading at $50.14, compared to an intra-day low of $46.43. The company's market capitalization currently stands at $13.7 billion. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission has sued crypto trading platform Binance and its founder Zhao Chanpeng over more than a dozen charges, including misusing customer funds.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission threw a one-two punch to cryptocurrency exchanges this week, charging yet another exchange, Coinbase, Inc., on Tuesday.

Among other things, the SEC alleges that, while Zhao and Binance publicly claimed that US customers were restricted from transacting on the firm's international exchange, in reality they "subverted their own controls" to skirt this rule.Further, the SEC alleges that, while Zhao and Binance publicly claimed that the company's US exchange was created as a separate, independent trading platform for US investors, they secretly controlled Binance.US operations behind the scenes.According to the SEC, Zhao and Binance have been able to commingle customer assets or divert customer assets as they please, including to an entity Zhao owned and controlled called Sigma Chain. SEC chair Gary Gensler says: "Through thirteen charges, we allege that Zhao and Binance entities engaged in an extensive web of deception, conflicts of interest, lack of disclosure, and calculated evasion of the law."As alleged, Zhao and Binance misled investors about their risk controls and corrupted trading volumes while actively concealing who was operating the platform, the manipulative trading of its affiliated market maker, and even where and with whom investor funds and crypto assets were custodied.

According to a statement published by the Alabama Securities Commission on June 6, a multi-state task force comprising of state regulators from Alabama, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, South Caroline, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin have issued a Show Cause Order against cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. The order alleges that "Coinbase violates the securities law by offering its staking rewards program accounts to Alabama residents without a registration to offer or sell these securities."

A study commissioned by the European Parliament has proposed that all crypto assets should be treated as transferable securities by default.

Just as the European Union officially signs its sweeping Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) rules into law, a study commissioned by EU Parliament suggests that crypto assets should be regulated as securities by default, potentially vindicating the stance of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong criticized US lawmakers and regulators over their approach to bringing “regulatory clarity” to cryptocurrency and warned that innovation is moving offshore.

“Adversary nations” like China could ultimately benefit from restrictive crypto policies in the United States, warns Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. 

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, is in the midst of discussing a proposal to let some of its institutional clients keep their trading collateral at a bank, instead of with the crypto platform, according to Bloomberg News. 

Lawmakers urged a US regulator to not further limit certain financial stakeholders in its proposed rule tightening cryptocurrency custody requirements. 

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, is facing allegations of having commingled customer funds with company revenue in 2020 and 2021, violating U.S. financial rules that mandate the segregation of customer money, according to a special report by Reuters. Citing three sources familiar with the matter, the report claims that the exchange held mixed accounts at U.S. lender Silvergate Bank, with sums running into billions of dollars.

Ethereum’s native Ether (ETH) token may be both a commodity and a security, the former commissioner of the United States Commodities Futures Trading Commission has claimed.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase called on a court to issue a “writ of mandamus” telling the US Securities and Exchange Commission to respond to its rulemaking petition within seven days.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is honing in on Washington DC with a new TV campaign set to launch this week promoting the future of crypto amid its own fight with US regulators.

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global Limited has to stop operations in Malaysia after its regulator found it was operating without being registered. 

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made campaign promises on Friday advocating for bitcoin users, adding that he plans to accept campaign donations in bitcoin.

Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and other aspects of the decentralized finance (DeFi) world can be regulated in the US, even though it is “just code,” according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chair Rostin Behnam.

On May 10, the United States House of Representatives Financial Services Committee and Agriculture Committee held their first joint hearing on digital asset regulation. The event felt like a logical continuation of another recent hearing where representatives lambasted Securities Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler for perceived regulatory overreach. 

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) believes Filecoin’s native FIL token is a security, crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments has revealed.