SEC's Next Move: Binance, Coinbase After Terraform Labs

In its legal battle with Coinbase, the SEC points to a favourable ruling from the Southern District of New York involving Terraform Labs, affirming UST, LUNA, wLUNA, and MIR tokens as securities.

This precedent forms the backbone of the SEC's argument against Coinbase, shifting focus to a different array of tokens, including Solana, Cardano, Polygon, Filecoin, The Sandbox, Axie Infinity, Chiliz, FLOW, Internet Computer, Near Protocol, VGX, DASH, and Nexo, claimed by the SEC to be unregistered securities.

According to the SEC filing, the court's assessment of Terraform's 'stablecoin' UST holds relevance in the court's examination of the Defendants' assertions concerning Binance's 'stablecoin' BUSD, alongside their staking services like BNB Vault and Simple Earn.

Simultaneously, the SEC lodged a motion in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, urging consideration of the summary judgment in the Terraform Labs case as it pursues action against Binance, Binance.US, and former CEO Changpeng Zhao.

Late last December, a federal judge sided with the SEC in the case against Terraform Labs and former CEO Do Kwon, deeming two tokens sold as unregistered securities. The ruling established that specific tokens were indeed securities due to their classification as investment contracts, specifically citing UST as an investment contract.

However, the court dismissed the SEC's claim that the Mirror Protocol's mAssets were security-based swaps, stating they did not meet the statutory definition.

The SEC emphasizes that this Terraform Labs judgment fortifies the grounds for Judge Amy Jackson to consider rejecting Binance's motion to dismiss. Both Binance and Zhao sought to dismiss the SEC's case, contending that the SEC overstepped its authority and retroactively applied securities standards.

Furthermore, the court dismissed motions from Terraform Labs and Kwon to exclude testimony from two SEC experts, while also rejecting the SEC's motion to exclude testimony from a defence expert.