Binance US Market Shrinks 78% in Just 7 Days After SEC Lawsuit

Following Binance and sister company Binance US’s troubles with American regulators, investors are pulling out. 

Data from crypto data firm Kaiko shows that market depth on the US sister exchange has plunged by nearly 80% since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit last week.  

The SEC last Monday named both Binance and its US-based sister company in a lawsuit alleging that Binance boss Changpeng Zhao commingled customer funds through a “web of deceit.” 

“In the past week market makers have fled Binance US en masse and the exchange’s liquidity has dropped by nearly 80%,” Kaiko analyst Dessislava Aubert told Decrypt. 

She added that the “decline on Coinbase and Binance has been more moderate.”

Binance US is a crypto exchange for Americans that uses the same logo but is run independently, according to Binance. Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. But even the assertion that its US affiliate is a separate company has been called into question by the SEC’s lawsuit.

Coinbase is America’s largest digital asset exchange. The SEC also hit it with a lawsuit the day after—but the complaint was less serious. 

Following the SEC lawsuit, Binance US suspended dollar deposits. Kaiko added that “fiat volume and in particular U.S.-denominated volume has been hit hard by the U.S. banking crisis and recent regulatory crackdown.”

It’s been a tough year for cryptocurrencies: Since the collapse of mega digital asset exchange FTX in November, U.S. regulators have launched a tough crackdown on the industry—and a number of companies have shuttered. 

The SEC in particular has clamped down on crypto companies it claims are selling unregistered securities. 

But despite the tightening grip on the industry, Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is up significantly this year: In January it was trading for $16,615 but is now priced at $25,814 per coin.