Federal Judge Rebuffs SEC Request for Binance.US Asset Freeze for Now

The federal judge overseeing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's case against Binance and Binance.US declined to order a temporary restraining order freezing the U.S. trading platform's assets.

That would allow the U.S. arm of the company to continue doing business while hashing out restrictions with the regulator.

If the two sides can agree on limits, Judge Amy Berman Jackson, of the D.C. District Court, said "there's absolutely no need" for a restraining order. In the meantime, the judge ordered Binance.US to provide a list of its business expenses to the court, and ordered the parties to continue negotiating. A status update is due by close of business Thursday.

In a packed Washington courtroom, the judge hammered SEC attorneys about their motion to freeze all of the company's assets until it could prove that no one from Binance's global platform, including Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, had access to its private keys.

At times, the judge seemed frustrated by the responses she was hearing when asking whether any Binance.US customer funds had actually left the U.S., after multiple SEC attorneys said they were mainly concerned about the fact that Binance's global platform controlled enough private key shards to move funds.

(Source: CoinDesk)