The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is cracking down against cryptocurrency operators, by suing two of the most important players in the sector: Binance and Coinbase.
On Tuesday 6 June, the SEC asked a federal court to issue a temporary restraining order to freeze the US assets of cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The petition followed the regulator's launch of a suit against the platform the previous day.
In the filing, the SEC accused Binance and founder Changpeng Zhao of engaging in a "web of deception" and "calculated evasion of the law", that included mishandling customer funds, artificially inflating trading volume on the site and evading US regulation.
The company and its founder have also been accused of diverting customer funds to companies controlled by Zhao.
In response, Binance, which is active in more than 100 countries, denied the claims that customer money had been put at risk, and said it would defend...