Binance removes token after SEC calls it a security
Important takeaways
- Binance announced today that it will remove AMP on August 15 from its US platform pending regulatory clarity on the token’s classification.
- AMP and eight other tokens were called securities by the Securities and Exchange Commission in a recent lawsuit.
- Binance has recently made efforts to comply with regulators after much criticism for previously being too lax on anti-money laundering and know-your-customer requirements.
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Binance.US is shutting down its AMP trading services after it was deemed a security by the Securities and Exchange Commission in a recent filing.
Awaiting regulatory clarity
Binance is removing AMP.
The leading crypto exchange announced in a blog post today its intention to remove Flexa’s AMP token on August 15 from its US platform. The decision was made after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) named AMP as collateral in a fraud case involving a former Coinbase employee.
Binance stated that while AMP had previously passed the risk assessment process the exchange uses to determine whether or not to list a token, the SEC’s recent filing pushed the company to remove the token “out of an abundance of caution.” Binance indicated that it would wait for further regulatory clarity before re-listing the token.
Interestingly, the exchange indicated that AMP would only be removed from the Binance.US platform, meaning that Binance customers from other parts of the world will likely still have access to AMP trading services. AMP deposits will be closed on August 15 at 9:00 PM ET, and the AMP/USD trading pair will be removed two hours later.
The SEC named AMP and eight other tokens as securities in one archiving on July 21 before announcement five days later that it was investigating Coinbase for listing securities. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler tired last week that he saw no meaningful differences between crypto exchanges and stock exchanges, and that the two should be regulated in the same way.
Binance is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world. Despite the recent market downturn, the platform is currently processes over $17 billion in daily trading volume, and its US branch, Binance.US, more than $400 million. Binance has been criticised previously by regulators in the past for its lax adherence to anti-money laundering and know-your-customer rules. However, the stock exchange has recently worked to tighten the requirements.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.
