(Reuters) – A federal judge ruled slow Friday that most of a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, can proceed.
The decision by Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is a blow to Binance, which had asked the court to throw out an SEC lawsuit alleging that Binance and its founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao violated securities laws.
The SEC lawsuit filed against Binance in June 2023 accused the exchange and Zhao of artificially inflating trading volume, misappropriating customer funds, failing to restrict U.S. customers from using its platform and misleading investors about market surveillance controls.
The regulator also accused Binance of unlawfully facilitating the trading of several crypto tokens that the SEC has deemed to be unregistered securities.
The ruling deepens concerns for the exchange after Binance in November agreed to pay $4.3 billion in a settlement with the Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over illegal financial violations.
Still, Friday’s ruling marks a partial victory for the broader cryptocurrency industry because it sided with the previous judge in finding that the SEC had failed to state its position that secondary sales of Binance tokens – sold by non-Binance sellers on exchanges – were not securities.
