Binance US removes 100+ advanced trading pairs amid SEC scrutiny
Some of the affected trading pairs included assets the SEC had classified as securities in its lawsuit against Binance.US
Embattled crypto exchange Binance US said it would remove advanced trading pairs for over 100 crypto assets and pause its over-the-counter trading portal, according to a June 7 statement.
Binance.US will remove USDT, BTC, and BUSD advanced trading pairs for digital assets like Bitcoin Cash, Aave, ApeCoin, Uniswap, Zcash, and others, on June 8 by 9 a.m. PDT / 12 p.m. EDT.
A breakdown of the removals showed that 95 assets were paired with USDT, eight cryptocurrencies were paired with Bitcoin, and two were paired with BUSD.
The exchange did not include further details of why it removed these assets’ trading pairs.
The move is coming less than a day after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sought a restraining order to freeze the assets of Binance.US’s parent company, BAM.
SEC-labeled security tokens impacted
Meanwhile, some affected trading pairs included digital assets the SEC had labeled crypto security tokens in its lawsuit against the firm on June 5. These trading pairs include AXS/USDT, ATOM/USDT, COTI/USDT, MANA/BTC, and MANA/USDT.
It was unclear if the SEC’s classification had impacted Binance US’s decision to delist these trading pairs. Binance US was yet to respond to CryptoSlate’s request for comment as of press time.
Additionally, the exchange stated that it was streamlining its buy, sell & convert offering to 20 digital assets, including Bitcoin, Cardano, BNB, Tether, USD Coin, and others. The exchange further noted that it had reduced the number of supported Convert trading pairs to 226.
Binance US added that its users’ funds and assets remained safe and secure, adding that deposits and withdrawals function optimally.
Update on June 8, 09:00 BST: Binance.US said they would no longer be removing USDT pairs. The chart below shows the updated list of trading pair removals.