Binance US says asset freeze sought by SEC will cripple crypto exchange

Binance.US urged a federal judge to reject a Securities and Exchange Commission request to freeze billions of dollars of assets on the cryptocurrency exchange during a legal fight with the regulator, arguing the move would cripple its business and hurt customers.

“Operations would quickly grind to a halt” without the ability to pay employees, vendors, suppliers and professionals or to maintain the trading platform, Binance.US attorneys said Monday in a court filing. “With a freeze of all corporate assets, banking partners would most likely cease to honor requests to transfer funds for any purpose, including customer redemptions.”

The SEC sought the asset freeze after suing Binance.US, Binance Holdings Ltd. and founder Changpeng Zhao last week, alleging “blatant disregard of US securities laws” and “years of violative conduct” that puts customer funds at risk.