The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed 13 charges against Binance Holdings Ltd., its U.S.-based affiliate BAM Trading Services Inc., and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, alleging violations of securities law.

The SEC has seemingly added a number of new digital assets to the list it deems to be a “security,” to the point there are now 61 digital assets the regulator has accused of being securities.

Google search activity, which can serve as a proxy for retail investor interest, shows that online curiosity about the cryptocurrency industry has been waning in recent months. The trend holds for specific cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Binance Faces SEC Lawsuit Over Alleged Securities Law Violations
• SEC Has 61 Digital Assets Now Considered Securities
• Google Searches for Crypto and Bitcoin Hit Multi-Month Lows
• Grayscale’s GBTC Discount Continues to Widen

Binance Faces SEC Lawsuit Over Alleged Securities Law Violations

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed 13 charges against Binance Holdings Ltd., its U.S.-based affiliate BAM Trading Services Inc., and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, alleging violations of securities law.

The charges include operating unregistered exchanges, broker-dealers, and clearing agencies, misrepresenting trading controls and oversight on the Binance.US platform, and the unregistered offer and sale of securities.

According to the SEC, Binance and Zhao made a public statement that US customers were barred from using Binance.com, and in reality, bypassed their own regulations with significant transactions to keep using their platform. The regulator also says Binance and Zhao covertly controlled Binance.US.

The SEC's accusations extend to the claim that Binance has been mixing "billions of dollars” in customer funds and secretly sending them to an entity owned by its founder Changpeng Zhao. SEC Chair Gary Gensler stated that Binance and Zhao engaged in an extensive web of deception, conflicts of interest, lack of disclosure, and calculated evasion of the law.

Binance has responded to the SEC, saying it has actively cooperated with the regulator’s investigations and worked diligently to answer their questions and address their concerns in the past.

The exchange lamented the SEC’s unilateral action, which it views as part of the SEC's misguided refusal to provide clarity and guidance to the digital asset industry. It emphasized its commitment to maintaining user assets' safety on its platforms, including Binance.US.

On social media, Patrick Hillmann, Binance’s Chief Communications Officer, said there is “zero evidence that users’ funds were ever at risk” as there has “never been any sort of misuse of spending of user funds for corporate purposes.”

SEC Has 61 Digital Assets Now Considered Securities

The SEC has seemingly added a number of new digital assets to the list it deems to be a “security,” to the point there are now 61 digital assets the regulator has accused of being securities.

This tally of 61 has been reached through years of litigation, with the SEC defining and refining its understanding of what it considers to be securities within the realm of digital assets.

Most recently, in its case against Binance, it classified 10 additional cryptocurrencies as securities, namely Binance's BNB, Binance USD, and the native tokens of Solana, Cardano, Polygon, Cosmos, The Sandbox, Decentraland, Axie Infinity, and COTI.

Other prominent cryptocurrencies labelled as securities by the SEC include Ripple’s XRP, LBRY’s LBRY Credits (LBC), and Algorand. The largest single haul came with the charging of Terraform Labs for fraud in February, resulting in 16 crypto assets being dubbed securities.

Google Searches for Crypto and Bitcoin Hit Multi-Month Lows

Google search activity, which can serve as a proxy for retail investor interest, shows that online curiosity about the cryptocurrency industry has been waning in recent months. The trend holds for specific cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

Over the past several months, Bitcoin has seen its price rise significantly, but search interest for it and the wider crypto industry has been diminishing. Google searches for the terms "crypto" and "cryptocurrency" are now far from their 2021 highs. In fact, searches for "crypto" have steadily dropped to their lowest point since late 2022, reaching a 29-month low.

Individual cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, have also seen a dip in their Google search popularity, according to data from Google Trends. Searches for Ethereum, for instance, have sunk to their lowest point since the start of December 2020.

Grayscale’s GBTC Discount Continues to Widen

The net asset value (NAV) discount of Grayscale's Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) now stands at -43.10%, as Grayscale persists in its challenge against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's refusal to transform GBTC into a spot Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF).

Although the discount has improved this year, it continues to oscillate, reflecting the market speculation associated with the ongoing legal conflict with the SEC.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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