Binance.US has announced the suspension of U.S. dollar deposits and has notified its customers of an incoming pause to fiat (USD) withdrawal channels as early as June 13, CoinTelegraph reports.
On June 9, Binance.US announced that it was forced to take action amid “extremely aggressive and intimidating tactics” from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
The firm noted that, in an effort to protect its customers and platform, it is suspending USD deposits. Furthermore, Binance.US is “notifying customers that our banking partners are preparing to pause fiat (USD) withdrawal channels as early as June 13, 2023."
As a result of the SEC’s “ideological campaign against the American digital asset industry,” Binance.US and its banking partners have faced increasing challenges, it said. Those banking partners have signaled their intent to sever fiat on-ramps to the exchange.
USD deposits will be suspended as of June 9 and USD trading pairs will be delisted next week, the firm stated, however, it will continue to support USDT $1.00 (Tether) trading pairs. It stated that any USD left on the exchange may be converted into a stablecoin that can be withdrawn on-chain.
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed 13 charges against Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, alleging both comingled billions of dollars worth of user funds and sent them to a European company controlled by Zhao, CNBC reports.
The U.S. regulator alleged on Monday that Zhao and his exchange worked to subvert “their own controls” to allow high net worth U.S. investors and customers to continue trading on Binance’s unregulated international exchange.
One senior executive allegedly told a compliance officer that the company was operating as a ”[f---ing] unlicensed securities exchange in the USA bro.”
The complaint alleges Binance created Binance.US as a shield for the main company and Zhao, to “reveal, retard, and resolve” law enforcement targets and insulate Binance.
Binance issued a statement on its blog stating:
We are disappointed that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chose to file a complaint today against Binance seeking, among other remedies, purported emergency relief. From the start, we have actively cooperated with the SEC’s investigations and have worked hard to answer their questions and address their concerns. Most recently, we have engaged in extensive good-faith discussions to reach a negotiated settlement to resolve their investigations. But despite our efforts, with its complaint today the SEC abandoned that process and instead chose to act unilaterally and litigate. We are disheartened by that choice.
The CEO of Twitter and Tesla has been accused of insider trading and manipulating the price of Dogecoin in a proposed class action lawsuit, reports Mashable.
Investors are claiming that Musk used his influence on Twitter, TV appearances, and paid online influencers to trade profitably at the expense of other investors
A Wednesday night filing in Manhattan federal court claims that Musk, for example, sold roughly $124 million worth of Dogecoin in April after he replaced Twitter's logo with Dogecoin's logo, which led to a 30 percent increase in Dogecoin's price. According to the filling, Musk went on a "deliberate course of carnival barking, market manipulation and insider trading" in order to defraud investors. In all, the complaint claims Musk had intentionally driven the price of Dogecoin up by over 36,000 percent over several years, and then let it crash.
On the evening of May 24, Salvatore Leggiero, developer of the forthcoming Bitcoin Tower, officially launched the project at an exclusive architecture-focused event by designer Simone Micheli, reports COINTELEGRAPH.
During the event, Leggiero and Micheli presented their collaboration for the Bitcoin Tower, which will have a version in the metaverse and a physical building.
The developer said that because of this experience, he imagined a project that would match his expertise in real estate and his passion for crypto — and the idea for the Bitcoin Tower in Dubai was born.
Leggiero also told Cointelegraph that he wants the project to be an open project, mentioning the possibility of creating a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) for the project.
South Korean lawmakers on Thursday unanimously approved a new bill requiring public officials and candidates to disclose their crypto holdings from 2024, according to local news outlet Chosun-Ilbo.
High-ranking public officials above Grade 4, such as the members of the National Assembly, will be required to report their crypto holdings, regardless of amount, from Jan. 1, 2024.
The bill, spearheaded by conservative lawmaker Lee Man-hee, also imposes a limit on the investment amount for an official involved in the crypto sector.
The proposal follows the ongoing scandal surrounding former lawmaker Kim Nam-kuk of the opposing Democratic Party. He is under investigation by local prosecutors for campaign finance violations, tax portals and concealment of criminal proceeds surrounding his hidden crypto possessions and transactions.
Speaking at the Bitcoin Conference recently, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became the first presidential candidate to accept Bitcoin campaign donations, reports WatcherGuru.com. Moreover, Kennedy previously referred to the digital asset as more than a currency but as an “exercise in democracy.”
The candidate has emerged as a vocal defender of the digital asset industry. Subsequently, amid US regulation in the sector, that remains unclear. As Federal Reserve-issued CBDC is on the horizon, the industry is primed to be a vital aspect of the upcoming elections.
In recent weeks, former lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has brought digital assets into the political arena. Specifically, he has remained outspoken against government-issued digital assets, and spoken in defense of one of the most important ones.
