Binance, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency platforms, is employing an innovative legal tactic in its battle against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The strategy involves taking advantage of a recent court statement in the case of Mango Markets vulnerability exploiter Avraham Eisenberg to strengthen his defense.
Recently, on April 26, Binance's legal team cited an official document related to the Eisenberg trial, where lawyer Damian Williams stated that the USDC stablecoin “is not a security.” Williams highlighted that USDC holders “do not expect profits,” as its value is directly pegged to the US dollar, providing relative stability.
This argument is crucial to Binance's defense, as the platform hopes this legal interpretation will help dismiss some of Binance's accusations. SEC. The SEC, in turn, argues that several Binance offerings could be considered securities, an approach that differs from the USDC case.
However, it is worth noting that this strategy is only applicable to the civil aspect of the Binance case, and does not address possible criminal charges that could fall on the former CEO Changpeng Zhao, which is awaiting trial.
This legal viewpoint also has the potential to influence other lawsuits against cryptocurrency platforms, including Coinbase, which faces similar accusations from the SEC. The SEC began legal proceedings against Coinbase and Binance in June 2023, and extended its investigations to other exchanges such as Kraken later in the same year.
The decision to use precedents from not directly related cases reflects the complexity of the regulatory environment and the ongoing legal challenges that cryptocurrency exchanges face. The developments of these processes are closely watched as they could set significant precedents for the classification of digital assets as securities in the cryptocurrency industry.
