Binance may strengthen its protection towards the US Securities and Change Fee (SEC) by drawing on an unrelated case.
On April 26, Binance and associated events filed a authorities doc from an unrelated case towards Mango Markets exploiter Abraham Eisenberg, who was convicted by a jury on April 18.
The federal government’s argument
Binance’s protection staff drew consideration to a selected paragraph during which the US authorities expressed its place on whether or not a selected stablecoin, USDC, is a safety.
On behalf of the US authorities, legal professional Damian Williams acknowledged that there “is not any factual foundation for treating USDC as a safety,” including that “holders of USDC don’t count on income from the token” due to its ties to the US greenback.
The argument closed off a doable exception that might forestall classifying MGNO Perpetuals, that are primarily based on the worth of USDC, as a blended swap.
The argument aided authorities prosecutors within the Eisenberg case however may gain advantage defendants going through securities violations in different instances, reminiscent of Binance.
Limitations of the argument
The relevance of the case might have limits. The SEC has charged Binance with numerous securities violations, however every case focuses on totally different choices.
Moreover, the most recent submitting is just related to the SEC’s civil securities go well with towards Binance Holdings Restricted, its former CEO Changpeng Zhao, and associated corporations. It doesn’t pertain to a prison case during which Zhao has pleaded responsible and awaits sentencing.
The Eisenberg case may additionally assist defendants in different securities instances, together with Coinbase, for comparable causes. The SEC initiated lawsuits towards Coinbase and Binance simply days aside in June 2023, and it has superior numerous different fits towards different exchanges, together with Kraken in November 2023.
