Binance, SEC agree to allow only US employees to access customer funds
June 17 (Reuters) - Binance, Binance.US and the U.S. securities regulator entered into an agreement to ensure that only Binance.US employees could access customer funds in the short term, according to court documents.
Under the agreement, which still needs sign-off from the federal judge overseeing the case, Binance.US will take steps to make sure that no Binance Holdings officials have access to private keys for its various wallets, hardware wallets or root access to Binance.US's Amazon Web Services tools, the filings showed.
The proposed agreement comes after the SEC sued Binance, its CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao and Binance.US's operator last week, in a dramatic escalation of a crackdown on the industry by U.S. regulators. The SEC also sued major U.S. exchange Coinbase (COIN.O) after that.
Binance.US and SEC did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.
The U.S. affiliate of Binance halted dollar deposits last week and gave customers until June 13 to withdraw their dollar funds, after SEC asked a court to freeze its assets.
Other provisions in the proposed agreement will see Binance.US create new crypto wallets that the global exchange's employees have no access to, provide additional information to the SEC and agree to an expedited discovery schedule, the filings said.
Reporting by Baranjot Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates and Louise Heavens
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Source: Reuters
