Binance and SEC Court Hearing Shifted Thanks to Snowstorm

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will not be having their hearing as earlier scheduled due to a snowstorm in the region.

The Binance Hearing Postponed

The U.S. securities regulator sued Binance on June 5, 2023 for some offences including operating in the U.S. illegally and misleading customers. Binance was also charged for flouting Know-Your-Customers rules and violating securities law. The markets regulator also named Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC) and Solana (SOL) amongst other cryptocurrencies trading on Binance as unregistered securities.

The matter has been in court since then and was scheduled for a hearing on January 19. However, the snowstorm weather in the U.S. has been quite unfavorable to the point of forcing a closure of the courtroom on Friday. 

Noteworthy, Binance, Binance.US, and its former CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao has been seeking the dismissal of this lawsuit with prejudice. They made an argument that the SEC failed to plausibly allege any token, BNB vault, or simple earn is a security, the BNB offering claim is time-barred, the SEC’s arguments impermissibly extend the securities laws overseas.

At another time, the U.S arm of the top crypto exchange made another bid to dismiss the lawsuit with the SEC. This was just around the time when Sheehan H. Band, Levi Giovanetto, Daniel J. Davis, Christian Kemnitz, and David Luger were all hired to join the legal team ahead of the Binance hearing. 

SEC May be Out of Line

As the postponement does not equate a dismissal, when the Binance hearing eventually holds, the exchange may argue that the SEC’s definition of what is securities is flawed; a similar situation in Coinbase lawsuit with the regulator. 

Also, Binance may bring up the subject of congressional authorization to rebuff the SEC’s action against it.

According to a December filing from Binance, “The SEC was on the sidelines for good reason—unlike the CFTC, the SEC lacks statutory authority over exchange sales of crypto assets.” 

This Binance hearing seems to share several similarities with that of Coinbase. After requesting for many months that the SEC lay down a clear regulatory framework for the crypto industry in the United States, Coinbase notably highlighted that regulating crypto is not in the jurisdiction of the regulator.