The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly looking into whether Binance violated any rules regarding the sale of securities when its BNB token was sold through an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017.
See related article: Binance’s venture arm raises US$500 mln to invest in Web3, blockchain
Fast facts
- The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume’s initial coin offering of BNB should have been registered with U.S. regulators if it amounted to the sale of securities, the report said.
- BNB is currently the world’s fifth-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of US$46.6 billion as of Tuesday morning Asia time, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
- In February, the SEC launched an investigation into Binance.US’ relationship with two trading firms with ties to founder Changpeng Zhao, The Wall Street Journal reported.
- Binance.US, the American exchange set up by Zhao, is actively expanding, raising over US$200 million from venture capital investors in April, and is believed to be eyeing an initial public offering in two to three years.
See related article: Binance US under probe for ties with trading affiliates: report