U.S. banks are cutting off financing to Binance after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a wide-ranging lawsuit against the cryptocurrency exchange.
Binance customers will no longer be able to use U.S. dollars to buy cryptocurrencies on the platform starting on June 13, hurting the exchange’s ability to conduct business in America.
Several U.S. banks that had been working with Binance announced plans to “pause USD fiat channels” at the crypto exchange after the SEC filed a civil complaint against the exchange and its founder, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), alleging multiple violations of U.S. securities laws.
Specifically, the SEC claims that Binance moved billions of dollars of assets between itself and its subsidiaries illegally and acted as an unregistered securities dealer within the U.S.
Binance has reassured its customers that they aren’t in danger of losing their money but has encouraged American users to either withdraw funds by the June 13 shutdown date or convert their crypto holdings into a stablecoin such as Tether.
It has been reported that customers have withdrawn more than $750 million U.S. of cryptocurrency from Binance since the SEC filed its lawsuit against the exchange.
Binance isn’t the only crypto company in the crosshairs of the Wall Street regulator. In recent days the SEC has also filed a lawsuit against rival cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase as it widens its crackdown on the market for digital coins and tokens.
