Crypto exchange Binance.US announced it is suspending US dollar deposits and warned customers that fiat (USD) withdrawal channels could be paused as early as next week.
The announcement comes just days after top US regulators sued the firm and its CEO Changpeng Zhao.
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The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been accused by Binance.US of operating with “extremely aggressive and intimidating tactics”.
On Tuesday, just one day after filing a lawsuit against Binance and founder Zhao, the SEC filed a lawsuit against crypto platform Coinbase.
US financial regulators said they supported a complete freeze on Binance’s assets, according to a US SEC federal court filing.
The two lawsuits mark a tough crackdown on the industry by the US regulators following the untimely fall of Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange FTX in November 2022.
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By GlobalDataThe crypto industry has been anxiously awaiting how the SEC would respond, after FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was charged with multiple crimes including money laundering and securities fraud.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has been under fire since the two lawsuits, with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong calling Gensler an “outlier” among US lawmakers.
Gensler has fought back against criticism and claims that the lawsuits were part of a plan to fully crash the crypto industry, Reuters reported.
Speaking at a Piper Sandler conference in New York, Gensler said: “When crypto asset market participants go on Twitter or TV and say they lacked ‘fair notice’ that their conduct could be illegal, don’t believe it.
“They may have made a calculated economic decision to take the risk of enforcement as the cost of doing business.”
GlobalData is the parent company of Verdict and its sister publications.
