On June 5, 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and its founder Changpeng Zhao, alleging violations of securities laws. The SEC’s complaint listed 13 charges, including artificially inflating trading volumes, diverting customer funds, failing to restrict U.S. customers from its platform, misleading investors about market surveillance controls, and secretly controlling customers’ assets.

 On June 6, the SEC sued Coinbase, another crypto exchange, alleging that the company was acting as an unregistered broker and exchange and demanding that the company be “permanently restrained and enjoined” from continuing to do so. Coinbase’s institutional service, Prime, its retail exchange product, and its self-custody Wallet service all offered one or more crypto asset security, according to the SEC’s complaint.

 Coinbase had already disclosed in March that the SEC had threatened to sue the company over some of its products. Shares of both Binance and Coinbase fell significantly after the lawsuits were announced. Analysts warn that Coinbase risks a revenue hit of more than 30% if it suffers a similar fate to Binance.

After Crackdown of SEC against crypto exchanges Changpeng Zhao posted in twitter.

Specific charges against Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed charges against Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken. The SEC filed more than a dozen charges against Binance and CEO Changpeng Zhao, alleging that they violated securities laws by artificially inflating trading volumes, diverting customer funds, failing to restrict U.S. customers from its platform, misleading investors about market surveillance controls, and secretly controlling customers’ assets, among other charges.

 Coinbase has been charged with unlawfully acting as an exchange, broker, and clearing agency of crypto asset securities, and that its interest. The SEC alleges that Coinbase’s institutional service, Prime, its retail exchange product, and its self-custody Wallet service all offered one or more crypto asset security. Kraken, on the other hand, has not been mentioned in the search results as being charged by the SEC.