The federal judge ordered the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Binance.US to continue negotiating on limits.
A federal judge in charge of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s case against Binance and Binance.US declined to issue a temporary restraining order that would have frozen the assets of the Binance.US trading platform.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the D.C. District Court asked the SEC to continue negotiating with Binance.US about limits, which would permit the company to carry on with its operations for now.
Binance.US urged the judge to reject the SEC's request to freeze billions of dollars' worth of assets on the platform. Representatives from Binance.US stated that they were "not willing to accept the death penalty" posed by a complete asset freeze and that they mainly wanted to be permitted normal operational expenses.
In the hearing on Tuesday, the judge appeared frustrated by the responses after questioning if any funds from Binance.US customers had actually left the country. Multiple SEC attorneys stated they were mostly worried about the fact that Binance's global platform had enough private key shards to move funds.
The judge reportedly stated that if the SEC and Binance.US lawyers can agree on the limits, “there’s absolutely no need” for a restraining order. This would allow all parties ample time to go through the case’s details. Judge Jackson also asked Binance.US to provide a list of its business expenses to the court. A status update is due by the end of the business day on Thursday.