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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a comprehensive lawsuit against Binance. On Monday, June 5, the SEC lodged the lawsuit in federal court, outlining 13 distinct charges. Essentially, the SEC accuses Binance of mishandling customer funds and providing false information to regulators and investors about its operations. So, let\u2019s take a closer look.<\/p>\n

TL;DR<\/strong><\/p>\n

SEC Launches Thorough Lawsuit Against Binance, Alleging Deception and Manipulation<\/span><\/h2>\n

The SEC has filed a thorough lawsuit against Binance, the world\u2019s largest cryptocurrency exchange. SEC Chair Gary Gensler stated that through thirteen charges, they allege Zhao and Binance entities were involved in deceptive practices, conflicts of interest, lack of transparency, and deliberate attempts to evade the law. Moreover, the allegations include misleading investors about risk controls, manipulating trading volumes, concealing platform operators, manipulative trading by affiliated market makers, and hiding the custody of investor funds and crypto assets.<\/p>\n

The SEC has accused Binance of commingling customer funds, which means mixing them together, to the tune of billions of dollars. They allege that these funds were covertly transferred to another company called Merit Peak Limited. Apparently, Binance\u2019s founder, Changpeng Zhao controls this company.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the allegations against Binance involve misleading investors about its systems\u2019 effectiveness in detecting and preventing manipulative trading. The SEC also claims that Binance did not take sufficient measures to prevent U.S. investors from accessing its unregulated exchange.<\/p>\n

In addition, the legal complaint identifies several individual tokens that the SEC considers to be securities. These tokens include BNB, BUSD, SOL, ADA, MATIC, FIL, ATOM, ALGO, COTI, SAND (The Sandbox), MANA (Decentraland), and AXS (Axie Infinity).<\/p>\n