Binance is due to submit its response to the CFTC complaint
on July 27 and plans to seek dismissal, according to a court filing on Monday.
The CFTC in March sued Binance, the world's biggest crypto
exchange, and Zhao for operating what the regulator alleged was an
"illegal" exchange and a "sham" compliance program.
In its complaint, the CFTC said that from at least July 2019
to the present, Binance "offered and executed commodity derivatives
transactions on behalf of U.S. persons" in violation of U.S. laws.
The CFTC and Binance did not immediately respond to Reuters'
request for comment.
Binance and Zhao were also sued by the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC) in June for allegedly operating a "web of
deception," listing 13 charges against Binance, Zhao and the operator of
its purportedly independent U.S. exchange.
Binance is also under investigation by the Justice
Department for suspected money laundering and sanctions violations, Reuters
reported earlier.
Meanwhile, a cryptocurrency developer's landmark legal
victory against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will galvanize
Coinbase and other companies to resist the agency's attempt to assert its
jurisdiction over the industry, experts said.
Thursday's ruling that Ripple Labs did not violate
securities law by selling its XRP token on exchanges was the first major
setback for the SEC in a decade of enforcement against the cryptocurrency
industry. Other crypto firms accused of illegally operating digital asset
exchanges are exploring ways to take advantage of the ruling, according to two
sources familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because they were
not authorized to speak publicly.
The crypto industry is in a tug-of-war with the SEC and its
Democratic chair Gary Gensler, who has described the crypto market as a
"Wild West" riddled with fraud. Saying most crypto tokens are
securities, the SEC has cracked down on crypto trading platforms, including the
top US exchange Coinbase, in an effort to bring the industry under its
oversight. © Reuters