Settle with Binance over asset freeze to allow ops, judge urges US SEC

A US judge has urged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to reach a settlement with crypto exchange Binance to let it continue operating in the US.

The New York Times reported that Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the US District Court for the District of Columbia asked the two sides to reach a compromise over the asset freeze.

She ordered both the parties to continue negotiating and submit a status update by Thursday.

The judge also expressed skepticism about the SEC's use of its enforcement powers to regulate the crypto industry, calling it "inefficient and cumbersome".

At the end of the hearing, she suggested both sides come to an agreement on the SEC's request to freeze assets as soon as possible.

Last week, the US regulator sued leading crypto exchange Binance, its CEO Changpeng Zhao and BAM Trading and BAM Management over allegedly mishandling funds and lying to regulators.

In a federal lawsuit, the regulator filed 13 charges against the defendants.

"Defendants unlawfully solicited US investors to buy, sell, and trade crypto asset securities through unregistered trading platforms available online at binance.com and Binance.US," the lawsuit read.

In court filings, Binance lawyers argued that the SEC's proposed asset freeze would prevent the crypto exchange from paying vendors, employees and suppliers, causing its operations to "quickly grind to a halt."

"We're not willing to accept a death penalty eight days into the case," a lawyer for Binance.US said at the hearing.

The SEC has also charged another crypto exchange Coinbase with operating its crypto asset trading platform as an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency.

--IANS

na/dpb