In its lawsuit against Binance and Changpeng Zhao, the SEC classified BNB, SOL, ADA, MATIC, FIL, ATOM, ALGO, COTI and other cryptocurrencies as securities under federal law.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched a new attack on the cryptocurrency industry.
On Monday, June 5, the regulator notified of a lawsuit filed against the cryptocurrency company Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ. According to the lawsuit, the company and its CEO have committed a variety of securities law violations by offering crypto assets to U.S. investors in an unregulated manner.
In that lawsuit, the SEC also He called a dozen cryptocurrencies securities, between them BNB, BUSD, SOL, ADA, MATIC, FIL, ATOM, ALGO, COTI and metaverse cryptocurrencies MANA, SAND AND AXS.
What cryptocurrencies are securities according to the SEC?
In the lawsuit filed against Binance, the SEC argues that the company has been facilitating the trading of cryptocurrencies as investment contracts and, therefore, as securities, to investors and US citizens in an unregulated manner.
While the SEC specifically discussed Binance-developed tokens BNB and BUSD and the cryptocurrencies Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), Filecoin (FIL), Cosmos (ATOM), Algorand (ALGO), Coti (COTI), Decentraland (MANA), The Sandbox (SAND), and Axie Infinity Shards (AXS), it also claimed that it was not limited to these assets alone, emphasizing that other cryptocurrencies may have securities attributes as well.
This is not the first time the SEC has argued in one of its lawsuits that cryptocurrencies comply with federal securities law.
In fact, the current chairman of the SEC, Gary Gensler, has noted that all cryptocurrencies, with the exception of Bitcoin, meet the agency's definition of value, although in a hearing held in April he refused to publicly declare to Ethereum (ETH) as a security.
The crypto community unites in the face of the new SEC attack
The SEC's recent actions and accusations against Binance have provoked different reactions in the crypto community.
The founder of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson, is one of those who has spoken out about the lawsuit that the US regulator has imposed against Zhao and his company. On Twitter, Hoskinson complained about the 136 pages of the lawsuit filed by the SEC just to strangle the crypto industry, in order to clear the way for the digital dollar, which will be a central bank currency (CBDC) with which the The government will be able to exercise strict control and surveillance of the financial lives of Americans, he noted.
Hoskinson said the SEC's actions are far from a debate about law enforcement and rather appear to be “a political philosophical disagreement with the very existence of cryptocurrencies and what they represent”. The Cardano founder and Ethereum co-founder also highlighted that the SEC's fight against crypto is nothing new and that this represents another opportunity for the crypto community to remain unified and put aside the fragmented nature.
Despite the uncertain regulatory landscape painted by the SEC's constant attacks, Hoskinson assured that the crypto industry continues to have a bright future ahead. “I will close with that we are going to be fine. “Everything is fine,” he stated.
Justin Sun, founder of Tron and Jameson Lopp, co-founder and CTO of CasaHODL, also expressed their dissatisfaction with the actions of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
As expected, CZ also spoke out about the lawsuit imposed by the regulator against him and his company. Furthermore, in a statement, Binance stated that the SEC is determined to undermine technological innovation in the United States. While cryptocurrency laws remain undeveloped in much of the world, the SEC continues to undermine the United States' role as a global center for financial innovation.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has abandoned the path of creating a clear and transparent regulatory framework for crypto assets, condemned the company.
Binance joins companies such as Ripple Labs and Paxos, which are or have been in dispute with the SEC for alleged non-compliance with US securities law.
Continue reading: The SEC investigates whether NFTs could be classified as securities in the United States
