Binance.US delists Tron’s TRX amid SEC’s charges against Justin Sun
Binance.US, the American outpost of the world’s biggest crypto exchange, will delist Tron’s TRX token, possibly out of an abundance of caution to comply with US regulations after recent charges against its founder.
Following the announcement that Binance US will no longer support it, the native token of the TRON network dropped to a three-week low of $0.062. However, the token ranked as 17th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization rebounded slightly to $0.064 at press time, representing a 5% decrease in value over the day.
Binance US also said it will delist a lesser-known token, called Spell (SPELL), from its trading platform. The delisting process for both tokens is scheduled for April 18, after which trading and deposits will no longer be possible, though withdrawals will still be supported. Binance US will continue to offer support for USDT and USDC stablecoins that are issued on the TRON network.
“We operate in a rapidly evolving industry and our digital asset monitoring process is designed to be responsive to market and regulatory developments. When a digital asset no longer meets our high standards, or industry circumstances change, we conduct a more in-depth review of the affected asset and assess whether further action is necessary,” the exchange said.
TRON founder Justin Sun stated in a text message to Reuters that he believes the impact of the delisting will be relatively small. He added that “Binance.US trading volume is less than $1 million per day. TRX’s current trading volume is $400 million.”
Earlier in March, Justin Sun was charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission with market manipulation, fraud, and other offenses. Additionally, eight celebrities, including actress Lindsay Lohan and rapper Soulja Boy, have been accused of unlawfully promoting Sun’s crypto assets.
The SEC alleges that the Chinese entrepreneur and his companies conspired to distribute billions of cryptoassets and artificially inflate trade volumes in order to lure in investors. The federal agency also claims that Sun manipulated the price of BitTorrent’s BTT token.
Earlier in August, Binance.US delisted the AMP token until more clarity exists around the token classification. 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.
