(Bloomberg) The world’s fifth-largest cryptocurrency BNB is under investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission on allegations it was offered as security in 2017.
SEC reportedly argues that Binance breached its rules by offering its digital tokens around five years ago. The regulator probes if the initial coin offering back in 2017 of the BNB coin amounted to the sale of security and thus fell under its rules.
The investigation comes just a day after a Reuters report indicated that Binance processed more than $2.35 billion worth of dubious and illicit transactions between 2017 and 2021.
In 2020, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao indicated that the wording of its BNB white paper was altered in January 2019 since it was subject to misinterpretation that the coin was security.
Binance now joins Ripple as the exchanges facing SEC probes over their tokens. The cryptocurrency has also been facing similar investigations by the US, including a probe of its trading practices last year.
BNBUSD is down -3.70%.
