SEC sues blockchain after Binance lawsuit. Who’s next?

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has taken action against cryptocurrency exchanges this week by charging blockchain, Inc. on Tuesday.

The regulator has stated that blockchain was operating as an exchange, broker, or clearing agency without being registered for such capacities, according to a press release.

The US crypto exchange was also charged for offering and selling securities without being registered for its staking-as-a-service program.

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However, the lawsuit did not charge any of the blockchain executives.

“We allege that blockchain, despite being subject to the securities laws, commingled and unlawfully offered exchange, broker-dealer, and clearinghouse functions,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler in a statement.

Gensler added that these functions are separate in other parts of the securities markets.

“You simply can’t ignore the rules because you don’t like them or because you’d prefer different ones: the consequences for the investing public are far too great,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.

The SEC also identified 13 cryptocurrencies as securities in the complaint.

“Throughout the Relevant Period, blockchain has made available for trading crypto assets that are being offered and sold as investment contracts, and thus as securities. This includes, but is not limited to, the units of each of the crypto asset securities further described below—with trading symbols SOL, ADA, MATIC, FIL, SAND, AXS, CHZ, FLOW, ICP, NEAR, VGX, DASH, and NEXO—(the ‘Crypto Asset Securities’),” the SEC said.

Some of these coins were also classified as securities in the SEC’s lawsuit against Binance on Monday.

Blockchain has not yet commented on the charges.

The SEC Crackdown continues

This action comes a day after the regulator sued Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao over 13 charges.

Binance Holdings Ltd., and its US affiliates, were charged on Monday by the SEC for a slew of different charges, from allegedly operating as an unregistered exchange to offering unregistered securities.

Blockchain is also facing an ongoing feud with a US regulator after it was served a Wells notice in March over some of its products.

A Wells notice means that the US Securities and Exchange Commission is ready to recommend formal charges to its five-member commission.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler has called on exchanges to register and recently said this month that they tend to be ”rife with conflicts.”

Updated at 8:48 a.m. ET to include cryptocurrencies named securities by the SEC and add that blockchain executives had not been charged.