US regulators investigating Binance's BNB token
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is probing if the 2017 initial coin offering amounted to the sale of a security that should have been registered with the agency.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly investigating Binance’s initial coin offering of its crypto token Binance Coin (BNB) in 2017. The regulator is probing if the 2017 initial coin offering amounted to the sale of a security that should have been registered with the agency.
Unnamed sources told Bloomberg that the SEC was also looking at companies owned or partially owned by Founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao.
One such entity, Binance.US, is under investigation to find out whether it is truly independent of Binance, and whether employees have been conducting insider trading.
Refusing to directly respond to the allegations, a Binance spokesperson told CoinDesk, "As the industry has grown at a rapid pace, we have been working very diligently to educate and assist law enforcement and regulators in the US and internationally, while also adhering to new guidelines. We will continue to meet all requirements set by regulators."
Binance is currently under investigation in America by the Justice Department, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Internal Revenue Service.
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, does not consider itself domiciled in any single country.
(This story was updated to correct two grammatical errors in the first paragraph.)
Edited by Teja Lele