Binance, SEC reach agreement to keep US customer assets in country

Binance and the US Securities and Exchange Commission reached an agreement to avoid a full asset freeze of the platform in the US and keep customer assets in the United States, after a US district judge signed off on a consent order filed Saturday.

The agreement was reached amid a wide-ranging, ongoing lawsuit filed by the SEC, which could take months if not years to resolve, accusing the company of running an illegal securities exchange.

The defendants, which include CEO Changpeng Zhao, agreed to repatriate assets held for the benefit of US customers. The agreement makes sure those assets are protected and remain in the United States to prevent them from moving offshore, according to the consent order.

"Through 13 charges, we allege that Zhao and Binance entities engaged in an extensive web of deception, conflicts of interest, lack of disclosure, and calculated evasion of the law," said SEC Chair Gary Gensler in a statement about the lawsuit in June.

Binance Holdings officials, including Zhao, also will not be able to have control over these assets, the agreement said. The assets and funds explicitly cannot be transferred to them, the agreement ordered, and will stay in domestic control.

The order also bans the defendants from spending the corporate assets on anything than "in the ordinary course of business," and they must give the regulatory agency oversight over the expenses, SEC said Saturday.

The SEC on Saturday said it secured the emergency relief to protect US customer assets.