In the closely watched lawsuit the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought against Binance and Binance.US, a federal judge in Washington has rejected the SEC’s request for a temporary asset freeze on Binance’s US platform.

The SEC has requested an additional four months to prepare a response to Coinbase's appeal for regulatory clarity for cryptocurrencies, according to a recent letter submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Uniswap Labs has recently outlined its plans for the newest version of a leading decentralized exchange, Uniswap v4. The team released the draft code for public scrutiny, aiming for a community-driven development process.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Binance.US Escapes SEC’s Asset Freeze, for Now
• SEC Seeks Four More Months to Decide on Coinbase’s Crypto Rulemaking Appeal
• Uniswap Labs Unveils Draft Code for Uniswap v4
• Binance Loses Spot Market Dominance for the Third Month in a Row

Binance.US Escapes SEC’s Asset Freeze, for Now

In the closely watched lawsuit the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought against Binance and Binance.US, a federal judge in Washington has rejected the SEC’s request for a temporary asset freeze on Binance’s US platform.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson from the D.C. District Court authorized Binance.US to carry on with its operations and ordered Binance to reconcile their proposed restrictions while telling the SEC to contrast what it wanted with what the firm proposed.

As the case developed, the judge instructed Binance.US to submit an account of its business expenditures and encouraged ongoing negotiations between the parties.

While SEC lawyers argued that Binance kept changing its story on how crypto assets and funds were held and whether it would cease doing business in the U.S., Judge Jackson asked them to find an agreement that would give them time to sort through the case’s details.

Judge Jackson also dug deeper into a fundamental question pivotal to the case, and asked SEC attorneys to distinguish between a “crypto asset” and a “crypto asset security.” The parties involved struggled to provide satisfactory explanations, with SEC attorneys saying they provided examples of cryptos they believed were securities, but reserved the right to assess the rest of the tokens on the exchanges later.

Binance.US attorney Matthew Martens, when asked if BNB is a commodity or a security, said “it is a crypto asset.”

SEC Seeks Four More Months to Decide on Coinbase’s Crypto Rulemaking Appeal

The SEC has requested an additional four months to prepare a response to Coinbase's appeal for regulatory clarity for cryptocurrencies, according to a recent letter submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

The regulator's request follows a June 6 court order asking the SEC to specify whether it was rejecting the request for rulemaking or if it required more time to articulate a response.

The SEC, in its letter, declared that it hadn't made a decision on Coinbase's petition, and claimed the cryptocurrency exchange’s request for a writ of mandamus has “no merit.” While saying the mandamus petition “should be denied,” the regulator anticipated it would be able to make a recommendation on Coinbase’s rulemaking petition “within the next 120 days.”

The letter, according to Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal, ignored a previous statement from SEC Chair Gary Gensler that the commission has “no intent to issue new rules.” Earlier this month, the SEC sued Coinbase for alleging offering unregistered securities and operating an unregistered securities exchange.

Uniswap Labs Unveils Draft Code for Uniswap v4

Uniswap Labs has recently outlined its plans for the newest version of a leading decentralized exchange, Uniswap v4. The team released the draft code for public scrutiny, aiming for a community-driven development process.

Uniswap v4 introduces several innovative features, starting with "hooks," contracts set to execute at various stages of a pool action's lifecycle, enabling more customization and tradeoff decisions.

A significant departure in v4 lies in its architectural shift, moving all pools within a solitary "singleton" contract. This is a shift from the former model, which assigned each pool its own separate contract.

Although this reconfiguration may lead to gas savings, the precise benefits will hinge on the efficiency of the new structure and its actual performance. Uniswap v4 also brings a "flash accounting" system into the fold, which transacts assets based on net balances, potentially leading to gas savings when used with the proposed "transient storage" facilitated by EIP-1153.

Additionally, Uniswap v4 restores support for native ETH, offering potential gas savings, and empowers pool creators to establish competitive fee tiers or customize them with a dynamic fee hook, with its efficacy relying heavily on the usage by pool creators.

Binance Loses Spot Market Dominance for Third Month in a Row

A culmination of factors, including the suspension of zero-fee trading for USDT pairs, overall market frailty, and heightened regulatory oversight, has resulted in a continuous decline in Binance's share in the spot market for the third month in a row, dwindling to 43% in May.

The spot trading volume on Binance witnessed a drop of 26%, reaching $212 billion in May, the lowest recorded on the exchange since November 2020. A parallel downturn was seen in the exchange's derivatives volume, which slipped by 16.5% to $1.10 trillion, marking the least derivatives volume since December 2022.

Find out more via CCData’s latest Exchange Review report, which captures the key developments within the cryptocurrency exchange market.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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