SEC-Binance case paused for 60 days—What comes next?

• Binance has denied claims that it sold most of its reserve assets last month.
• The exchange has paused its SEC lawsuit for 60 days pending the crypto task force report. 

The SEC-Binance[BNB] legal proceedings will be briefly paused for sixty days. This would allow the parties to wait for an update from the recently constituted Crypto Task Force. 

According to a filed joint motion dated on the 10th of February, the stay could be extended based on the outcome of the Task Force report. Part of the filing read, 

“At the end of the 60-day stay period, the Parties propose that they will submit a joint status report, including whether a continuation of the stay is warranted.” 

The parties argued that the task force’s report, designed to provide more regulatory clarity in the sector, would directly impact or help resolve the case.

Whether Ripple, Coinbase, and Kraken, firms with ongoing cases, will follow Binance’s moves remains to be seen.

However, Alex Thorn, Head of Research at Galaxy Digital, believes that the update would clarify the security status of most altcoins by mid-April. 

He stated, 

“Now the SEC and Binance have filed for a 60 day stay in their litigation. Effectively asking the court for a pause while they re-evaluate. 60 days from yesterday’s stay request filing is April. 12. We think the SEC will have decided their new view on the security status of cryptos by then.” 

Other claims against Binance

In other developments, Binance has denied allegations that it sold its assets, including Bitcoin and Ethereum reserves. 

The firm added that user funds were safe. Additionally, it stated that the alleged ‘sell-off’ was part of an accounting adjustment. Its statement read, 

“Binance is not selling assets. This was simply an adjustment in the Binance treasury’s accounting process. User funds are SAFU, as always.”

Interestingly, the alleged sell-off by the exchange was first reported by crypto analyst Kuai Dong, citing data from Binance’s proof of reserve. 

Dong claimed that the exchange had sold nearly all the profit made from major tokens. This included BTC, ETH, SOL, USDT and transferred them to USDC.

Part of his analysis read,  

“At present, most currencies have been converted into the stablecoin USDC, among which BNB has the lowest reduction ratio, only -16.6%. If we look at the market conditions in January, most currencies are at historical highs.”

Source: X