SEC accuses Binance of noncooperation, court unseals case documents: Law Decoded
The legal struggle between crypto exchange Binance and the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) continues. The SEC has accused Binance.US of noncooperation in the ongoing investigation. The agency points out that Binance.US’s holding company, BAM, has produced only 220 documents during the discovery process. Many of those materials “consist of unintelligible screenshots and documents without dates or signatures,” the SEC said. The regulator added that BAM has refused to produce essential witnesses for deposition, instead agreeing only to four depositions of witnesses it has unilaterally deemed appropriate.
Meanwhile, Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an order granting the SEC’s motion to unseal or remove the redaction from 18 sealed documents and another nine partially sealed or redacted documents. The partially sealed documents total 117 pages. Among them are internal Binance.US documents, emails and SEC court filings, including the memorandum on Binance.US’s compliance with SEC discovery efforts.
Amid lawsuits from the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Binance.US announced that it was laying off a third of its staff, with its president and CEO Brian Shroder also departing the firm. Later, an additional two executive departures were reported as both head of legal Krishna Juvvadi and chief risk officer Sidney Majalya decided to quit the company.
As a result of the tumult, trading activity on Binance.US has tumbled to new lows in September. The lowest point hit by trading activity in the month was $2.97 million, a significant drop compared to the same period in 2022 when the trading volume was around $230 million.
No crypto ban in India as the nation works on legislation
India is working on a crypto regulatory framework based on the joint recommendations of the International Monetary Fund and the Financial Stability Board that could result in legal legislation in the next five to six months. Sidharth Sogani, the CEO of a blockchain analytic firm that offered consulting services to several G20 committees and nations, told Cointelegraph that India is currently working on a five-point regulatory approach focusing on global collaboration on certain aspects, such as crypto taxation.
EU lawmakers vote for a crypto tax reporting rule
Lawmakers in the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to support the eighth iteration of the Directive on Administrative Cooperation (DAC8) — a cryptocurrency tax reporting rule. The session saw DAC8 receive overwhelming support from 535 members of parliament and just 57 against, with 60 abstentions. DAC8 aims to empower tax collectors with the authority to track and assess all cryptocurrency transactions conducted by organizations or individuals within the member states. Some DAC8 critics have opined that it takes oversight ability away from individual member states.
Anti-CBDC bill reintroduced to Congress
U.S. Representative Tom Emmer and 49 original co-sponsors revived the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act in the U.S. House of Representatives in a bid, they claim, to protect American citizen’s right to financial privacy. Emmer first proposed the bill to address central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in January 2022. It was formally introduced to Congress in February 2023 to limit the U.S. Federal Reserve from minting a programmable digital dollar, which Emmer claims is a “surveillance tool that would be used to undermine the American way of life.”
The bill specifically prohibits the Fed from issuing a CBDC to individuals, which Emmer says would stop it from mobilizing into a retail bank able to collect personal financial data. It also prohibits the central bank from using any CBDC to implement monetary policy.