Binance US, the American branch of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance, announced that it will delist TRON (TRX) and Spell (SPELL) from its trading platform.
Both tokens will be removed from Binance US on April 18. Although withdrawals for TRX and SPELL will still be possible, trading and deposits will no longer be available. The exchange said it will continue to support USDT and USDC stablecoins issued on the TRON network.
According to Binance US, the delisting was prompted by a routine review process, during which the company considers a variety of factors such as trading volume, liquidity, and regulatory standing in the U.S.
Other factors that may influence a delisting decision include evidence of fraud or unethical conduct associated with the token.
At #BinanceUS, we periodically review each digital asset listed to ensure that it continues to meet the standard of excellence we expect.
Based on our recent review, Spell (SPELL) & TRON (TRX) will be delisted from the platform on April 18, 2023.
(🧵1/2) pic.twitter.com/EJCzM9xZdN
— Binance.US Customer Support (@BinanceUShelp) April 12, 2023
“We operate in a rapidly evolving industry and our digital asset monitoring process is designed to be responsive to market and regulatory developments,” Binance US said in a statement. “When a digital asset no longer meets our high standards, or industry circumstances change, we conduct a more in-depth review of the affected asset and assess whether further action is necessary (i.e. delisting).
Immediately after the announcement, TRX, the market's 17th-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, fell to a three-week low of $0.062 before rebounding to $0.064 by press time. This still represents a 4.7% drop over the day, the steepest decline among the crypto market’s top 50 assets, per CoinGecko.
The Tron Foundation didn’t immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.
SPELL, the other asset to be delisted from Binance US, is a reward token linked to abracadabra.money, a lending platform that users interest-bearing tokens as collateral to secure loans for its dollar-pegged stablecoin Magic Internet Money (MIM).
In a pattern similar to TRX, the price of SPELL declined 4.8% as a result of the delisting decision.
The move to delist TRX comes three weeks after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Tron founder Justin Sun and several celebrities, including Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, and Akon, of manipulating the price of TRX and BitTorrent (BTT) tokens.
The SEC alleged that both TRX and BTT are unregistered securities and that Sun engaged in price manipulation by "orchestrating a scheme to pay celebrities to promote TRX and BTT without disclosing their compensation."
The SEC's lawsuit specifically targets Sun's three companies: the Tron Foundation, BitTorrent, and Rainberry. The complaint further alleges that Sun earned illegal profits of $31 million through TRX sales.