Cryptocurrency exchange Binance hits back at SEC lawsuit, saying allegations ‘simply wrong’ – as it happened

Binance is being sued by the SEC. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

8.08pm BST

Summary

Here’s a quick summary of what happened today:

• The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, the most serious action taken by US regulators against the company.

• The SEC said that Binance operated a shell company, Binance.US, to skirt federal regulators, along with diverting customer funds to outside entities.

• Binance issued a response to the SEC’s lawsuit saying that it had been complying with regulators’ “questions” and was looking to negotiate a settlement with the agency.

• In the aftermath of news of the complaint, the price of Bitcoin fell below $26,000 for the first time since March.

We’ll be closing this blog for now. Thanks for reading. You can read the full report on the lawsuit here:

Updated at 8.09pm BST

8.03pm BST

Seems like Christiano Ronaldo was set to announce a partnership with Binance soon. Ronaldo collaborated with Binance on an NFT collection last fall.

We're working on something with @Cristiano Ronaldo.

Here's a behind the scenes look at what we've got coming up. pic.twitter.com/7n8NnBlGui

— Binance (@binance) May 26, 2023