US SEC slaps cases on big crypto bourses

Washington Two lawsuits filed this week by the US market regulator -- the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) -- could potentially determine the future of cryptocurrency. Binance.com, the world’s largest crypto exchange, related entities and founder Changpeng Zhao were the target of the first lawsuit, which was filed on June 5. The next day, on the regulator’s 89th birthday, the SEC filed its second suit, now against Coinbase, another large exchange.

“There is nothing about the crypto securities markets that suggests that investors and issuers are less deserving of the protections of our securities laws,” SEC chair Gary Gensler said in a speech just days later on Thursday. He added that crypto exchanges and promoters have long been aware of the rules of the road for trading in cryptos -- through SEC orders and enforcement actions -- but they have chosen to ignore them or dismiss as they “may have made a calculated economic decision to take the risk of enforcement as the cost of doing business.”