Trading volume on Binance.US is evaporating as the cryptocurrency exchange’s fight with US regulators intensifies.
(Bloomberg) — Trading volume on Binance.US is evaporating as the cryptocurrency exchange’s fight with US regulators intensifies.
As of August, monthly trading volume has declined 98% from January 2022, according to researcher CCData, and is on track to drop further in September. The American operations of Changpeng Zhao’s crypto empire had $115.7 million in volume through Sept. 15, per CCData. Volume topped $286 million in August, the researcher said.
Most of the decline has taken place since March, when the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged Zhao with violations. The US Securities And Exchange Commission sued Binance.US as well as Zhao and his main exchange, Binance, in June over a slew of violations, including “misrepresenting trading controls and oversight on the Binance.US platform.”
The US company is fighting the charges in court, prompting the SEC on Monday to accuse Binance.US in a filing of an “inability to keep its story straight.”
After the SEC complaint was filed in June, Binance.US lost it banking support, suspended US dollar deposits, and began a series of layoffs. Binance.US Chief Executive Officer Brian Shroder departed last week, when the company laid off a third of its remaining workforce.
In a Monday filing, SEC attorneys asked the court to grant its motion to compel Binance.US to provide all documents it seeks as part of expedited discovery. So far, Binance.US “has provided inconsistent representations about key facts, slow-rolled small productions of documents and information, and stonewalled on entire categories of information that would likely shed light on its shaky assertions concerning the custody of customer assets.”
“The accelerating mass exodus” of Binance.US employees “further underscores the urgent need for expedited discovery into these issues now,” the SEC wrote.
Binance.US had about $10.5 million in daily trading volume as of Monday, according to data tracker CoinGecko. By comparison, Coinbase Global Inc. the largest US crypto exchange — had $948 million in daily trading volume.
A spokesperson for Miami-based Binance.US didn’t respond to a request for comment.
(Updates with more details from Monday’s SEC filing)
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