The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues to put pressure on the crypto exchange Binance, requesting that the testimony of Binance.US Former CEO Catherine Coley be included in the case and urging Changpeng Zhao to appear in court.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Washington, issued a subpoena to Changpeng Zhao. The document states that a criminal case is pending against Binance CEO, and he must respond to it within 21 days of receiving it, or else the court will issue a default judgment and Zhao will be found guilty.
Although the subpoena doesn’t specifically state what Changpeng is accused of, the document is part of the lawsuit that the SEC filed against Binance and its affiliates.
It has also come to light that the SEC has provided new evidence of Binance’s guilt. The documents filed with the lawsuit contain a 2022 deposition from Binance.US Former CEO Catherine Coley, which she gave as part of an investigation into the company’s insider trading activities.
Coley’s testimony primarily relates to the separation of Binance and Binance.US. In her testimony, she describes how she tried to make Binance.US independent from Binance, especially with respect to wallet storage and trading data. In addition to Coley’s testimony, the SEC has also filed documents containing internal communications that allegedly refer to various aspects of Binance.US, including attempts to gain greater independence, and discussions of fictitious trading.
The SEC’s actions are already affecting Binance’s operations in the United States. For example, according to the Binance.US blog, ten BTC and BUSD trading pairs have been suspended on the platform. Binance.US has also reduced the number of supported convertible trading pairs and temporarily suspended its OTC trading platform without specifying a date for the resumption of activity.
In turn, Binance is actively defending its rights and gathering a community of like-minded people. Thus, a statement with the hashtag #StrongTogether was published on Chinese social media in which Binance representatives claim that the company is “different from others.” And although the message didn’t specify exactly what Binance is different from, it’s not hard to guess what was meant. Especially in the context that the message separately highlights several key details that appeared in the case against FTX and Alameda Research, viz:
- the transparency of the company’s wallet addresses;
- raising consumer funds or making unsecured loans;
- making large donations to political candidates or sponsoring entertainment and media organizations.
The U.S. regulator also demanded to freeze Binance accounts in the U.S. and give them detailed information about all transactions and customers of the platform.
