U.S. judge Rejects SEC’s asset freeze request for Binance.US

The U.S. federal judge ordered SEC and Binance.US to find a compromise that would allow the exchange to avoid freezing all assets. The status is expected to be updated on Thursday.

​U.S. judge Amy Berman Jackson’s decision to dismiss SEC’s lawsuit against Binance.US to immediately freeze all assets will allow the exchange to continue operations as usual while working with regulators to negotiate some restrictions.

Related: Binance.US temporarily suspends fiat operations

Judge said at a June 13 hearing:

Shutting it down completely would create significant consequences not only for the company but for the digital asset markets in general.

Meanwhile, the judge clarified that an injunction isn’t necessary at this stage. She ordered Binance.US to submit a detailed account of its business expenses to the court and urged the parties involved not to slacken in their negotiations. A progress report is expected by the end of business hours on Thursday.

As CoinDesk reports, the judge was sometimes even frustrated by the evasive answers given by SEC. When asked if Binance.US customers’ funds had actually left the U.S., SEC’s lawyers repeatedly responded that their main concern was that Binance controls enough private key shards to move funds.

The judge also asked several repeated questions to clarify how exactly SEC defines securities and why some of them are designated as such while others aren’t. At the beginning of the hearing, she asked SEC to distinguish between a “crypto asset” and a “crypto asset security”

SEC attorney Matthew Scarlato responded that in the original complaint, the regulator had cited numerous instances of cryptocurrencies that it considered securities. However, SEC also expressed its intention to evaluate the remaining tokens available on exchanges at a later date.

Related: SEC sues CZ and Binance for multiple securities violations

She then asked both parties whether other cryptocurrencies listed on exchanges are considered commodities. Binance.US’s lawyer responded that the BNB token, deemed as security by SEC, is a “crypto asset.” Not a security nor a commodity. The judge said, “What is that? No one wants to tell me.”