US SEC lawsuit affects Binance’s South Korea expansion, financial regulators to postpone approval = report

Acquisition decision pending

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) has further withheld approval for major cryptocurrency exchange Binance to acquire GOPAX. Local media “Newspim” reported on the 7th.

GOPAX is a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange. In February of this year, Binance announced plans to acquire shares in the company and re-enter the South Korean market. The FSC will also monitor the status of the Binance lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) before deciding whether to approve the acquisition.

The FSC currently believes it will be difficult to approve the acquisition of Binance. Newspim reported that the acquisition may not be approved. The SEC has just filed a lawsuit, and the FSC will make a decision while monitoring the situation.

This is not the first time a Binance acquisition has stalled. The FSC also put a hold on changing GOPAX’s board when the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sued Binance and Changpong Zhao (CZ) CEO in March of this year.

connectionUS CFTC sues Binance and CZ for violating US law

The announcement of Binance’s acquisition of shares has attracted a lot of attention as GOPAX is one of the top five cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea. On the other hand, the second largest shareholder in GOPAX’s parent company Streami is the US virtual currency conglomerate “Digital Currency Group (DCG)”, and Streami is one of the largest creditors of DCG subsidiary Genesis, which has filed for bankruptcy.

Against this backdrop, GOPAX has temporarily suspended withdrawals and interest payments on yield products. The Binance acquisition was also expected to allow users to resume withdrawals and interest payments. Of the five major cryptocurrency exchanges, Upbit has the majority of the market share in South Korea.

connection: Binance Re-enters Korean Market with GOPAX Stake Acquisition

SEC prosecution

The SEC sued Binance itself, Binance US, and CZ on the 5th. The SEC alleges 13 charges, including offering unregistered securities and diversion of client assets. Binance has indicated that it will fight the case in court.

The SEC also asked the court to freeze the assets of Binance US on the 6th. It also called for all fiat and cryptocurrencies held by the company or traded by its users to be transferred to the United States.

connectionUS SEC calls for freeze of Binance US assets

Binance announced its entry into the Japanese market in November last year. By acquiring Sakura Exchange Bitcoin Co., Ltd., the company is preparing to offer its services to domestic investors in compliance with Japanese regulations.

connection: Binance announces plans to terminate global version of service for Japanese residents

connection: What is Binance, the world’s largest virtual currency exchange?

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