Robinhood Weighs Delisting Crypto Assets Deemed Securities By the SEC

Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD), the public-listed commission-free investing platform is now weighing its crypto offerings after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initiated a crackdown on two of the biggest crypto exchanges – Binance and Coinbase.

On Tuesday, June 6, Dan Gallagher, Robinhood’s legal chief appraised the US Congress of this situation. Gallagher is himself a former SEC Commissioner and had recently testified before the House Agriculture Committee during a meeting focused on digital assets.

Gallagher added that the brokerage is “actively reviewing” the regulator’s analysis “to determine what if any, actions to take”. Unlike other crypto exchanges, Robinhood gives a limited crypto offering to its customers.

Currently, there are only 18 cryptocurrencies listed on the Robinhood exchange, as against hundreds listed on the crypto exchange Coinbase. However, some of the tokens listed on Robinhood include – Solana, Cardano and Polygon – deemed as unregistered securities by the SEC.

$2.2 Billion Worth of Assets At Binance.US At Risk

In its latest appeal, the SEC has asked the court for the freezing of Binance.US assets to prevent the dissipation of funds. The SEC noted that the $2.2 billion of US customer funds of Binance.US are at significant risk. “Zhao and Binance have had free reign, over customer assets worth billions of dollars,” the SEC alleged.

SEC lawyers took urgent action by filing a motion to the court, expressing concerns about the possibility of money leaving the country and requesting the repatriation and freezing of U.S. customer assets. This is to prevent any unauthorized transfers by Zhao or Binance entities.

The SEC has filed a lawsuit against Binance and Zhao, accusing them of selling securities without proper registration and mixing investor funds with their own. The SEC filing claims Zhao as a “foreign national who has made overt his views that he is not subject to the jurisdiction of this Court.”