Binance.US and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have agreed to a settlement that will allow the exchange to avoid freezing all of its assets.
On June 14, Bloomberg reported that U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson referred the two organizations to a magistrate judge to work toward a compromise agreement that could protect client funds without having to Closing the trading floor.
“A complete shutdown would create significant consequences not only for the company but for the digital asset market as a whole,” Judge Jackson said at a June 13 hearing.
Judge Jackson emphasized that she would not make a final decision on the SEC's motion for a temporary restraining order until both sides had resolved with the judge.
Another update on the agreement with the judge is scheduled for close of business on June 15.
In addition, Judge Jackson also said that it seemed “not too difficult” for the SEC and Binance.US to reach an agreement on this matter.
Before Judge Jackson issued his decision at the hearing, former SEC enforcement attorney John Read Stark informed his 20,000 Twitter followers that there were “a lot of conflicts between things.” want to take it out of court.
“This doesn't mean a judge can't order compromise and find common ground,” Stark explained.
The SEC filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order against Binance.US on June 6, after accusing Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) of possible unauthorized use of Binance customer funds .US.
The regulator accused Zhao of transferring $12 billion of Binance's funds through an entity he controlled called Merit Peak.
In a June 12 joint memo filed ahead of the ban hearing, both Binance.US and Zhao rejected claims that the platform had manipulated funds. They allege the SEC is “unable to identify a single instance” where Binance.US customer funds were ever misused.
“Exactly, there is no ‘emergency’ here, other than one the SEC created for its own purposes.”