Stablecoin issuer Circle weighs in on SEC case against Binance
Quick Take
- Circle said in a filing that stablecoins designed for payments “do not have the essential features of an investment contract.”
Circle, the company behind the the stablecoin USDC, today waded into the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s case against Binance.
The SEC sued Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao in June over alleged violations of local securities laws. The suit alleged that Binance’s affiliate, BAM Trading, sold unregistered securities including BNB and stablecoin BUSD.
In a filing late on Thursday, Circle said that stablecoins designed for payments “do not have the essential features of an investment contract,” and as such do not fall within the SEC’s remit. It also argued that users of such stablecoins do not expect any profit from holding them, according to a CoinDesk report.
The news comes a little over a month after Dante Disparte, Circle’s chief strategy officer, told Bloomberg that bank failures in the U.S. — and the impact of those on local stablecoin issuers — had forced investors into “unsafe, opaque” cryptocurrencies overseas.
© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.