The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on Saturday that Binance had agreed to repatriate its U.S. customers' assets pending a massive lawsuit against the world's largest crypto exchange, adding that it would secure the funds.
Binance and its boss Changpeng Zhao have "agreed to repatriate to the U.S. assets held for the benefit of customers of the Binance U.S. crypto trading platform," the SEC said in its statement.
The regulator did not specify how many of Binance's U.S. customers are affected, nor the value represented by these funds.
Earlier this month, the SEC charged the crypto giant with securities law violations that amounted to "an extensive web of deception" and "calculated evasion of the law."
Binance allegedly permitted U.S. residents to trade, even though the platform is not registered in the U.S. as a securities exchange. The case also alleges the firm misused customer funds.
The SEC says it wants to keep U.S. customer funds safe, adding that the court order also prohibits Binance and Zhao "from spending corporate assets other than in the ordinary course of business."
"Given that Zhao and Binance have control of the platforms' customers' assets and have been able to commingle customer assets or divert customer assets as they please, as we have alleged, these prohibitions are essential to protecting investor assets," said Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC's enforcement division, in the statement.
"Further, we ensured that U.S. customers will be able to withdraw their assets from the platform while we work to resolve the alleged underlying misconduct and hold Zhao and the Binance entities accountable for their alleged securities law violations," he said.
User "funds have been and always will be safe and secure on all Binance-affiliated platforms," a Binance spokesperson told the Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Although we maintain that the SEC's request for emergency relief was entirely unwarranted, we are pleased that the disagreement over this request was resolved on mutually acceptable terms," the spokesperson said via email.
The platform, created in Shanghai in 2017, has cornered much of the crypto-trading market, turning its globe-trotting founder Zhao into a billionaire.
But it has long been accused of facilitating money laundering, setting up complex structures to avoid regulation, and busting sanctions – claims it denies.
After the SEC announced the charges, Binance said earlier this month that it was halting U.S. dollar deposits and encouraged clients to withdraw their dollars.
The case comes on the heels of charges in March against Binance by another U.S. regulator, the Commodities Futures and Exchange Commission, and as the company faces a legal probe in France on allegations of illegal trading and money laundering.
French prosecutors announced Friday that they had opened an investigation to investigate allegations that the French arm of Binance traded illegally in digital assets and a separate charge of "aggravated money laundering."
Le Monde newspaper, which first reported the probe, said the company is suspected of failing to respect obligations to ensure its clients were not using the platform for money laundering.
