Binance.US and the SEC Come to Common Grounds to Avoid the Funds Freeze

In the latest development, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have agreed to work on a deal with Binance.US in order to avoid the total freeze of assets on the crypto trading platform.

Soon after the SEC filed the lawsuit against crypto exchange Binance last week, the federal securities regulator proceed with asking the court to freeze the assets of Binance.US and prevent the funds flowing out of the country.

In a separate filing, Binance.US requested the court that the SEC should not be allowed to proceed with its proposal since that would cripple their operations entirely and ultimately hurt its customers. “We are not willing to accept the death penalty eight days into our case,” one of the Binance.US lawyers told the judge.

On Tuesday, June 13, the US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said that the two sides “aren’t that far apart” on coming at a common ground and protecting billions of dollars in customers funds without shutting the exchange while the SEC lawsuit proceeds on one end. “The nitty-gritty of it is better handled by you than by me,” Jackson said during a hearing in Washington.

I its defense, Binance.US has argued that the exchange needs to have enough funds in order to cover ordinary business expenses such as paying for rent, salaries, vendors and licensing of software. A Binance.US attorney said: “The area that is giving us consternation is an asset freeze that will be misconstrued by banks”.

Agreeing to it, the judge said: “Shutting it down completely would create significant consequences not only for the company but for the digital asset markets in general”.

Binance responded to the SEC's asset freeze request by suggesting a compromise. The proposal involved moving US customers' cryptoassets to new wallets controlled solely by Binance.US officers based in the US.

Binance also sought permission to continue paying employees and covering operating costs, with a commitment not to transfer assets or make payments benefiting any Binance entity without a court order. In contrast, the SEC proposed that Binance bring customer assets back to the US, placing them under the control of entities independent of Zhao and capable of managing customer redemptions.

During yesterday’s hearing, one of the SEC attorney’s said that they are open to a “narrowly-tailored exception” to any freeze that would let Binance.US cover its operations.

Just as the news came, the price of Binance Coin (BNB) shot up by a staggering 7.21% in the last 24 hours. Amid the current price surge, the BNB price has once again regained the $250 levels.