The CEO of Binance, Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, and the crypto exchange itself are being sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for allegedly violating federal securities laws. The SEC claims that Binance operated an unlicensed stock exchange and committed other violations.

This lawsuit follows allegations made in March by the U.S. regulator Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that Binance and Zhao knowingly offered unregistered crypto derivatives products in the U.S. Both the SEC and Binance have declined to comment on the matter.