The SEC has been keen to take enforcement action on popular ICOs to raise funds. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has now launched its investigation into BNB, the world’s fifth largest cryptocurrency.
After a long five-year run, the BNB token has now come under the scrutiny of the SEC. The SEC has launched its investigation into whether Binance violated securities laws with its 2017 BNB token sale. After Ripple’s XRP, BNB is the second largest cryptocurrency that has come under the scrutiny of the SEC.
This investigation could affect the growth of Binance which is already facing major regulatory hurdles around the world, that too in the US, while BNB is currently priced at $285 and trading up 7% on a market cap of $46.7 billion. Moving on with the decline.
Binance told Bloomberg in a statement: “It would not be appropriate for us to comment on our ongoing conversations with regulators, including education, support, and voluntary responses to information requests.” Crypto exchange Binance further said that it will continue to engage with the authorities and that “we will continue to meet all requirements by regulators.”
Not only is BNB facing issues of scrutiny from the SEC, it is also troubling by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of Justice.
The world’s largest crypto exchanges recently aided an alleged $2.35 billion money-laundering scheme. Sources further disclosed during the SEC’s investigation that this could prevent the securities regulator from suing the company, and that it could be the fate of Ripple and years of court trials before coming to that conclusion.
One of the sources further stated that: “Beyond BNB, the SEC is also investigating the misuse of trade by Binance insiders and whether the finance. has been separated from.”
The SEC has moved its investigation to market-makers linked to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. The SEC is also interested in a stake owned by market makers of Zhao on Binance US.
