Binance's branch in the United States has taken action by suspending its OTC trading platform and reducing the number of supported trading pairs.
Binance.US has discontinued trading services for multiple crypto tokens on June 7, following a lawsuit filed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission against Binance entities and their leaders.
In an official announcement, Binance.US stated, "After careful consideration, we have decided to remove selected Advanced Trading pairs on June 8, 2023, at 9 a.m. PDT / 12 p.m. EDT. We have also streamlined our Buy, Sell & Convert offering and temporarily paused our OTC Trading Portal." This pause affects more than 90 trading pairs involving the stablecoin Tether (USDT). Deposits and withdrawals, however, are still available.
The exchange also clarified that USD conversions will remain unaffected but adjusted the maximum trade amount for buy, sell, and convert options to $10,000. Furthermore, Binance.US shut down its over-the-counter (OTC) trading platform without providing a timeline for its resumption.
On June 5, the SEC initiated legal proceedings against Binance, accusing the exchange of offering unregistered securities. The lawsuit comprises 13 charges, including unregistered offers and sales of BNB and BUSD tokens, Simple Earn and BNB Vault products, as well as its staking program.
Additionally, the SEC alleges in the lawsuit that Binance failed to register its Binance.com platform as an exchange or broker-dealer clearing agency. Just a day after filing the lawsuit against Binance, the commission also targeted Coinbase on similar grounds, claiming that certain popular cryptocurrencies offered by the exchange qualify as securities.