Hassan Maishera
TL;DR
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Bitcoin has lost more than 3% of its value in the last 24 hours following the SEC’s lawsuit against Binance.
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The SEC has sued Binance and its CEO for violating US Securities Rules.
SEC Sues Binance And CZ
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), on Monday, for violating US securities rules.
According to the SEC, the cryptocurrency exchange allowed high-value U.S. customers to trade on its platform. The regulatory agency added that this is a violation of U.S. securities laws which prohibits unregistered exchanges from providing trading services to US customers.
The SEC also alleged that CZ has control over customer assets and has been combining personal and company holdings.
Binance has since responded to the lawsuit, stating that it would fight to defend its platform.
However, the news sent the crypto market into a mini-meltdown on Monday. Bitcoin, the world’s leading cryptocurrency by market cap, lost more than 3% of its value on Monday and dropped to the $25,400 level. It has slightly recovered and is now trading above $25,700.
BNB, the native coin of the Binance ecosystem, is the worst performer amongst the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap in the last 24 hours. BNB lost more than 8% of its value over the last 24 hours and currently trades at $276 per coin.
The total cryptocurrency market cap dropped below $1.1 trillion for the first time in nearly two months, and it currently stands at $1.09 trillion.
