Co-founder and CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, speaks on stage during the opening night of Web Summit 2022.
Hugo Amaral | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed an emergency motion in Washington, D.C. federal court Tuesday evening, asking a judge to freeze the assets of Binance’s U.S. platform and repatriate those held by customers on Binance’s U.S. trading platform.
The freezing order only applies Binance’s two U.S. holding companies, not to the non-U.S. regulated international exchange.
The emergency restraining order was necessary, the regulator argued, to “prevent the dissipation of available assets for any judgment, given the Defendants’ years of violative conduct, disregard of the laws of the United States.”
The order also compels Binance’s founder, Changpeng Zhao, to “show cause why a preliminary injunction” against Zhao and his two holding companies “should not be entered.”
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