A United States judge, Amy Berman Jackson, has approved an agreement between Binance.US, Binance, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The agreement dismisses a previous temporary restraining order (TRO) that aimed to freeze all Binance.US assets. The judge had expressed her preference for the parties to reach their own agreement, and they reportedly did so on June 16.
The approved agreement states that only Binance.US employees will have access to client funds until the litigation is resolved. U.S.-based customers will still be able to withdraw funds during this period. The deal also prevents Binance global officials from accessing private keys of wallets, hardware wallets, or root access to Binance.US’s Amazon Web Services tools.
Binance.US responded on Twitter, stating that the court did not grant the SEC’s request for a TRO and asset freeze, which the exchange believed was unjustified based on the facts and the law. Binance.US further argued that the SEC had not presented any evidence of customer asset misuse and noted that the SEC lawyers conceded in court that they had no evidence to support such claims.
A noteworthy provision in the agreement concerns the repatriation of certain assets to the United States. Binance.US is required to repatriate and transfer to BAM Trading, while BAM Trading maintains possession, custody, and control of all fiat currency and crypto assets deposited, held, traded, or accrued by customers.
Furthermore, Binance.US must take immediate action to provide a verified written accounting of accounts associated with BAM entities valued at over $1,000.
The SEC had filed an emergency motion for a TRO against Binance.US on June 6, alleging that Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao had access to Binance.US customer funds. The regulator claimed that Zhao moved $12 billion of Binance’s funds through an entity he controlled. Binance.US and Zhao denied mishandling funds and stated that the SEC failed to identify any instances of customer fund misuse.
