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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has extended the list of cryptocurrencies it considers unregistered securities to cover US$115 billion worth of tokens following its Monday lawsuit against crypto exchange Binance, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
See related article: Binance, US platform, CEO face SEC lawsuit over alleged securities violations
Fast facts
- The SEC said in a Monday complaint that tokens traded on Binance, including the BNB token issued by Binance, stablecoin BUSD, Solana, Cardano’s ADA, Polygon’s MATIC, are securities and require registration and regulation.
- Considering other tokens already targeted by the SEC, that would round up the coins it regards as securities to amount to US$115 billion of cryptocurrencies, according to the Bloomberg report.
- On Monday, the SEC filed 13 charges against Binance, alleging the exchange made unregistered and unlawful offers and sales of its BNB and BUSD tokens. The SEC also alleged that Binance did not register Binance.com as an exchange or a broker-dealer clearing agency.
- A Binance spokesperson told Forkast on Tuesday morning in an emailed statement that BNB is not a security. “Rather, BNB is a native token, designed to create an internal economy; thus, its value derives from its participants.”
- The lawsuit sent shockwaves through the crypto market. Bitcoin dropped 4% in the past 24 hours to US$25,780 at 12:35 p.m. in Hong Kong, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Ether fell 3.15%, and BNB lost 8.05% to trade at US$276.99.
See related article: Bitcoin, Ether skid; BNB drops more than 10% after U.S. securities regulator sues Binance