The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has broadened its lawsuit against a popular cryptocurrency exchange, Binance. This extended legal action now includes more tokens—Axie Infinity (AXS), Filecoin (FIL), Cosmos (ATOM), Sandbox (SAND), and Decentraland (MANA)—that the SEC has recently classed as securities. This move shows how the SEC is still working to regulate the cryptocurrency industry by categorizing different digital assets as securities.
The SEC charges Binance and its U.S. affiliate, BAM Trading, with enabling transactions using recently categorized securities in its amended case. According to the authority, Binance’s platforms flooded the market with promotional information from promoters and issuers, portraying these tokens as viable investments. The SEC’s larger plan to enforce governance and compliance in the cryptocurrency sector includes this step.
In its update, the SEC once again states that Binance does not have the proper registration to operate as a clearing agency, broker-dealer, or exchange. The agency claims that Binance failed to disclose the risks and legality of the tokens traded on both its international and US platforms and that it exploited interstate commerce mechanisms to execute securities transactions on behalf of others.
This legal expansion has drawn criticism for the SEC’s regulatory stance. Recent criticism has increased with the SEC’s acknowledgment that the term “crypto asset security” is problematic, leading to claims of regulatory inconsistencies. Stuart Alderoty, Ripple’s chief legal officer, chastised the SEC for making inconsistent allegations, focusing on anomalies discovered in the updated complaint.
Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, has also pointed out apparent contradictions in the SEC’s stance. He questioned the SEC’s previous characterization of XRP as a security during its 2020 lawsuit against Ripple, suggesting that the regulator’s shifting positions may mislead courts and stakeholders. This ongoing legal and regulatory debate continues to shape the landscape of cryptocurrency regulation and enforcement.
