Binance delists Amp as SEC considers the token a security
Binance.US, the American outpost of the world’s biggest crypto exchange, will delist the AMP token “out of an abundance of caution” to comply with US regulations.
The exchange will shut down the deposits of Amp (AMP) and remove the relevant trading pairs effective August 15. However, Binance.US says it could resume AMP trading at some point in the future, but the exchange is taking this step now until more clarity exists around the token classification.
“For any digital asset that potentially no longer meets these standards, we conduct a more in-depth review and assess whether to delist it. We believe that, in some circumstances, delisting an asset best protects our community from undue risk,” the statement reads.
The move came after the SEC claimed in a court filing that AMP was among at least nine digital assets listed on Coinbase that it considers unregistered securities. That was mentioned in a complaint against former Coinbase Product Manager Ishan Wahi and two others who are accused of insider trading.
The nine tokens that fell under the SEC’s purview are AMP (AMP), Rally (RLY), DerivaDEX (DDX), XYO (XYO), Rari Governance Token (RGT), LCX (LCX), Powerledger (POWR), DFX Finance (DFX), and Kromatika (KROM).
Amp is an open-source platform with an ERC-20 token created on Ethereum to serve as a collateral asset and enable quick and secure investments in the practical market. With smart contract capabilities explicitly designed for collateral, Amp assists users in decentralizing risk.
The regulators said that Amp alongside eight crypto assets contain the “hallmarks of the definition of a security.” That includes the availability of secondary markets for trading the tokens.
“At Binance.US, we periodically review each digital asset we list to ensure that it continues to meet the high level of standard we expect. Once an asset has been listed, we also conduct regular supplementary reviews, as well as scheduled and event-driven recertifications for all listed assets to ensure they continue to meet our high listings standards,” the exchange said.
The news comes as Binance.US is reportedly looking to extend its seed round with a follow-on fundraise of up to $50 million. It will be Binance.US’ second fundraising this year, after the exchange raised about $200 million in April at a pre-money valuation of $4.5 billion. While it has seen greater trading volumes than other rivals in the US, Binance.US still trails far behind Coinbase.
Last year, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said that depending on business growth, Binance.US is eyeing a potential IPO route to go public within three years. At the time, CZ added that Coinbase, which became the first crypto exchange to go public, helped set up a playbook for crypto firms to do IPOs.
