The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase in a New York Court, a day after filing a lawsuit against leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

The SEC has filed a motion in the D.C. District Court for a temporary restraining order in a bid to freeze assets tied to Binance.US. The targeted entities include BAM Management US Holdings and BAM Trading Services, the parent and operating firms for Binance.US, respectively.

In an appearance on live television, SEC Chair Gary Gensler has unequivocally stated that he believes there is no need for additional digital currencies as“digital currency already exists in forms such as the U.S. dollar, the euro, and the yen.”

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Coinbase Faces SEC Lawsuit for Allegedly Violating Securities Laws
• SEC Seeks to Freeze Binance.US Assets
• SEC Chair Gensler: No Need for More Digital Currencies

Coinbase Faces SEC Lawsuit for Allegedly Violating Securities Laws

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase in a New York Court, a day after filing a lawsuit against leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

Charges levied against Coinbase include operating as an unregistered broker and exchange, with the SEC demanding the company cease these actions permanently.

The complaint alleges Coinbase’s main prime brokerage, exchange, and staking programs are in violation of securities laws. The SEC’s indictment maintains the exchange has continually resisted regulatory structures and bypassed the disclosure requirements mandated by U.S. securities law.

The SEC pointed to a number of cryptoassets available on Coinbase’s platform as securities, including Solana’s SOL and Cardano’s ADA tokens. The SEC now has well over 60 digital assets that it considers securities.

Shortly after the SEC’s lawsuit was filed, a multistate task force from regulators across the U.S., including Alabama, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, demanded Coinbase halt its staking service.

SEC Seeks to Freeze Binance.US Assets

The SEC has filed a motion in the D.C. District Court for a temporary restraining order in a bid to freeze assets tied to Binance.US. The targeted entities include BAM Management US Holdings and BAM Trading Services, the parent and operating firms for Binance.US respectively.

This move comes after Monday's lawsuit against Binance.US, Binance Global, and the founder and CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, for alleged securities law violations. The SEC claims, among other things, that entities connected to Zhao were able to access Binance.US customer funds.

The SEC's filing asserted that the rapid implementation of the restraining order was critical to ensure customer asset security and prevent the draining of available assets for any potential judgment “given the Defendants’ years of violative conduct, disregard of the laws of the United States, evasion of regulatory oversight, and open questions about various finance transfers and the custody and control of Customer Assets.”

A second filing solicited an order to challenge why a preliminary injunction should not be granted, among other demands that include a call for an order “prohibiting the destruction of records by the defendants.”

Should the order be granted, Binance will have five days to limit customer fund access to only Binance.US. Furthermore, within a month, all customer assets must be transitioned to new wallets that solely Binance.US can access.

Binance.US has said that “user assets remain safe and security,” and that its attorneys provided the regulator with information addressing concerns over fund safety. The filing from Monday suggested the likelihood of a temporary restraining order request, indicating that the SEC could ask for provisional injunctive relief, which might encompass asset freezes and a verified accounting.

In a statement refuting the initial lawsuit, Binance emphasized that Binance.US user funds were never endangered, asserting that all user assets on Binance and its affiliate platforms, including Binance.US, were safe and secure.

SEC Chair Gensler: No Need for More Digital Currencies

In an appearance on live television, SEC Chair Gary Gensler has unequivocally stated that he believes there is no need for additional digital currencies as“digital currency already exists in forms such as the U.S. dollar, the euro, and the yen.”

Gensler’s words come hot on the heels of the SEC’s lawsuits against leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance and Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. Live on television, Gensler directly addressed viewers, drawing attention to what he perceives as problematic practices within the digital asset trading platforms.

“These trading platforms, they call themselves exchanges, are co-mingling a number of functions. In traditional finance; we don’t see the New York Stock Exchange also operating a hedge fund, making markets, and as we alleged in Binance, having a sister organization flooding the platform with transactions called ‘wash trading.’”

Gensler said the lawsuits against Coinbase and Binance were a long time in the making, due to the investigative work involved. The Chair of the SEC has also said the regulator has tried to talk to the platform to bring them into compliance.

It’s worth noting that Coinbase sued the SEC for clear cryptocurrency regulation. The SEC has tried to dismiss that lawsuit, indicating that establishing such rules could take years.

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