Binance and SEC file joint motion to halt legal dispute for 60 days

Binance and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have jointly requested the court to pause their legal case for 60 days.The court filing, submitted Monday, stated that the request to stay the case was made with consideration of the SEC’s new task force for developing a clear regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies.“The work of this task force may impact and facilitate the potential resolution of this case,” the document said. “Accordingly, the SEC proposed a brief stay to Defendants, and the Defendants agreed that a stay is appropriate.”The defendants in the case are Binance, its co-founder Changpeng Zhao, BAM Trading Services and BAM Management US Holdings.The filing also noted that at the end of the 60-day period, the parties plan to submit a joint status report that decides whether an extension of the stay is warranted.Originally filed in June 2023, the SEC’s complaint against Binance and affiliated entities included 13 charges based on its claim that the exchange operated unregistered exchanges, broker-dealers and clearing agencies for financial securities.In June 2024, a federal judge partially dismissed the charges regarding Binance’s BUSD, Simple Earn programs and the secondary sales of BNB, but still upheld a large part of the SEC’s claims.The agency, under the leadership of former chair Gary Gensler, also filed lawsuits against other major crypto players, including Ripple, Coinbase and Kraken, with charges of a similar nature to the Binance case.The SEC’s claims against the crypto platforms have been criticized by industry members and experts who claim that it failed to deliver clear instructions on what offerings or services of cryptocurrencies may violate federal securities laws.SEC Crypto 2.0Gensler, who faced heavy criticism from the crypto sector for his “regulation by enforcement” approach against major players, stepped down last month following crypto proponent Donald Trump’s reelection as U.S. President. Gensler’s departure from the agency has been touted as a major positive shift for crypto regulations. Trump has since named pro-crypto SEC Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda as the acting chair of the SEC, and appointed former regulator Paul Atkins to assume the role of SEC chairman. Atkins, who also shares a friendly view toward crypto, has yet to be confirmed by the Senate.Under new leadership, the SEC was also said to be scaling down its crypto enforcement unit. The Wall Street Journal reported that the SEC reassigned chief litigation counsel Jorge Tenreiro, who has overseen several crypto lawsuits, to the agency’s IT department.SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, the leader of the SEC’s crypto task force, said in a statement last week that the team will work to provide clarity on which crypto assets are financial securities, and prioritize classifying some tokens as “non-securities.”“To date, the SEC has relied primarily on enforcement actions to regulate crypto retroactively and reactively,” the SEC said in the crypto task force announcement, titled SEC Crypto 2.0. “The Task Force’s focus will be to help the Commission draw clear regulatory lines, provide realistic paths to registration, craft sensible disclosure frameworks, and deploy enforcement resources judiciously.”Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.