SEC Proposes Amendment to Binance Case, Ripple Kicks

After more than a year of the case on Binance sponsored by the U.S securities and exchange commission (SEC), the agency is proposing an amendment to the case.

The SEC had earlier filed a case against Binance alleging that the exchange allowed the trading of cryptocurrencies it referred to as securities. These included SOL, ADA, and MATIC. The agency is however seeking amendment to the filing to remove the need for labeling such assets as securities.

The agency submitted a joint status report on Monday to the court saying: “The SEC informed Defendants that it intends to seek leave to amend its Complaint, including with respect to the ‘Third Party Crypto Asset Securities’ as defined in the SEC’s Omnibus Opposition to Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss, Dkt. No. 172, obviating the need for the Court to issue a ruling as to the sufficiency of the allegations as to those tokens at this time,” the SEC wrote.

In Response to Court Order

Following the suit which the SEC filed against Binance last year, the court ordered the two parties on July 9 to meet, confer, and file a joint submission on 29 July for further proceedings, including deadlines for any motion to amend the complaint.

The Monday submission was in response to this court order. Binance stated in the report that the SEC “represented for the first time that it intends to move for leave to file an amended complaint” during their conferment.

Binance also stated that the SEC proposal “suggests that they intend amendments beyond the claims concerning the Third-Party Tokens.”

Ripple Execs Kick

Top executives of Ripple have responded to the new proposal by the SEC to amend its earlier charges against Binance. The company’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse referred to the amended complaint as “hypocrisy”.

“Chair Gensler testifies the rules are clear, yet his SEC can’t figure them out and applies them haphazardly, festering more industry confusion,” Garlinghouse said in a post on X. It is noteworthy that the SEC still refers to the same tokens in the Binance case securities in an ongoing Coinbase case.

Commenting on this, Ripple’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty said “When a judge signals B.S. on the SEC’s claim that 10 tokens on Binance are securities, the SEC says ‘never mind” in a Twitter post. “But these tokens are left out to dry in the Coinbase suit. This isn’t how to regulate,” he added.

Ripple itself has had its fair share of the SEC’s trouble as it has been in court since 2020 over allegations that XRP is a security. The company only found relief last year when a court ruled that the token was not a security as alleged by the SEC.