SEC Drops Binance Lawsuit as Trump Returns, Shaking Up Crypto Rules
Okay, so get this! The U.S. financial watchdog, the SEC, just dropped its big lawsuit against Binance. You know, the biggest crypto exchange out there. This happened on Thursday, and it seems like a new vibe for crypto rules now that President Donald Trump is back in the White House.
They filed the paperwork to end the case in a court in Washington, D.C. Lawyers for the SEC, Binance, and even the Binance boss, Changpeng Zhao, signed off on it. The SEC basically said they're ending the case because, well, they can. They also said it doesn't mean they feel differently about other crypto lawsuits, which is kinda interesting, right?
This dismissal is a big deal because it's 'with prejudice.' That means the SEC can't try to sue Binance for this stuff again. Binance was super happy about it. Their spokesperson even called it a 'landmark moment.' They were really thankful to the SEC Chairman, Paul Atkins, and the Trump administration for, like, seeing that new ideas need room to grow without being constantly hit with lawsuits.
The SEC sued Binance and Zhao back in June 2023. They said Binance was making trading look bigger than it was, moving customer money around, and kinda hiding things from investors about how they kept an eye on things. Also, they accused Binance of letting people trade certain crypto tokens that the SEC, under President Joe Biden, thought should have been registered like regular stocks.
This whole lawsuit thing was separate from that time Binance pleaded guilty in November 2023 and had to pay a huge $4.32 billion fine. That was for breaking rules about stopping money laundering and following sanctions. Zhao also pleaded guilty to money laundering stuff and got out of prison last September after being in there for four months.
Remember how the SEC also dropped a case against Coinbase, the biggest U.S. crypto exchange, in February? That case was about Coinbase letting people trade tokens that weren't registered either. So, it seems like a trend, maybe?
The crypto industry has been pretty annoyed for a while about people trying to treat digital stuff like regular investments. A lot of companies think tokens are more like commodities, you know? If tokens are seen as investments, crypto companies would have to register with the SEC and tell investors a lot more.
The current SEC Chairman, Paul Atkins, said back in May that a big goal is to create clear rules for how to issue, trade, and keep crypto safe, while also stopping bad actors. He said this would be a top priority. But then, just recently, on May 20th, the SEC actually sued a company called Unicoin. They accused Unicoin and its bosses of ripping people off to the tune of over $100 million by selling tokens they claimed were safe and backed by real estate and parts of companies that weren't even public yet. So, it's a bit confusing, isn't it? What do you think about that?
Trump promised when he was running for president again that he'd be a 'crypto president.' He said he'd undo the crackdown that happened when the previous SEC head, Gary Gensler, was in charge. Since then, the SEC has pulled back or paused a bunch of crypto lawsuits. It feels like things are shifting, right? Idk, it's definitely a wild ride in the crypto world!
