Binance, SEC strike deal to move all US customer funds, wallet keys back onshore

Binance, Binance.US and the U.S. securities regulator announced a deal to ensure that only Binance.US employees could access customer funds in the short term, CoinDesk reported on Saturday, citing a proposed agreement.

Under the agreement, which still needs sign-off from the federal judge overseeing the case, Binance.US will take steps to make sure that no Binance Holdings officials have access to private keys for its various wallets, hardware wallets or root access to Binance.US's Amazon Web Services tools, the report said.

The proposed agreement comes after the SEC sued Binance, its CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao and Binance.US's operator last week, in a dramatic escalation of a crackdown on the industry by U.S. regulators. The SEC also sued major U.S. exchange Coinbase after that.


Binance.US and SEC did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

The U.S. affiliate of Binance halted dollar deposits last week and gave customers until June 13 to withdraw their dollar funds, after SEC asked a court to freeze its assets.

Other provisions in the proposed agreement will see Binance.US create new crypto wallets that the global exchange's employees have no access to, provide additional information to the SEC and agree to an expedited discovery schedule, the report said.