On June 17, US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson approved an agreement between Binance.US, Binance, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), overturning a previous Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) freezing all Binance.US assets .
On June 14, Jackson said she would prefer the parties to reach an agreement independently rather than let her rule. The two sides reportedly reached an agreement on June 16.
Binance.US said on Twitter: "We are pleased to inform you that the court's failure to grant the SEC's TRO and request to freeze assets on our platform is clearly unreasonable both factually and legally." Under the approved agreement, only Binance.US employees will have access to client funds until the lawsuit is resolved. During this time, US customers will retain the ability to withdraw funds.
The deal between the cryptocurrency exchange and US regulators also blocked any access by Binance global officials to wallets, hardware wallet private keys, or root access to Binance.US Amazon Web Services tools.
“The SEC has never presented any evidence of misuse of client assets. In fact, SEC attorneys admitted in court earlier this week that when asked by the judge, they had no evidence that any of this happened,” Binance.US claims of mismanagement of funds. Commenting on the case on Twitter, former head of the SEC's Office of Internet Enforcement, John Reed Stark, noted that the agreement includes a "particularly interesting provision" regarding the repatriation of certain assets to the United States. “Defendants shall be repatriated to the United States, transferred to BAM Trading, and confirm that BAM Trading retains, has custody and controls in the United States all fiat and crypto assets deposited, held, traded or accrued by clients,” the agreement reads.
Additionally, the deal stipulates that Binance.US must take immediate action to secure “verified written accounts” of accounts associated with BAM entities valued at more than $1,000.
On June 6, the SEC filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order against Binance.US after accusing Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao of obtaining Binance.US customer funds in a lawsuit. Regulators accused Zhao of moving $12 billion in Binance funds th rough an entity he controlled called Merit Peak. Ahead of the restraining order hearing, Binance.US and Zhao filed a joint memorial denying any mishandling of funds. According to them, the SEC has not found any cases of Binance.US customer funds being misused.
