The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against the largest crypto exchange Binance

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit in Washington against the largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance Holdings Inc., its US subsidiary and founder Changpeng Zhao, charging 13 counts.

The SEC filing alleges that the exchange has provided access to the platform to some wealthy Americans, although exchanges that are not registered in the US are not allowed to provide services to US citizens.

“Zhao and Binance misled investors about risk control procedures and misreported trading volumes while hiding platform operators,” SEC chief Gary Gensler also said.

The Binance blog says that the company intends to actively protect the platform. Since Binance is not a US exchange, the report notes, SEC action is limited. “All user assets on Binance and Binance partner platforms, including Binance.US, are safe and secure,” the blog post notes.

Binance.US, in turn, said that the lawsuit is "unfounded neither by the facts, nor by law, nor by the Commission's own precedent."

Amid news of the SEC lawsuit, the price of bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency in the world, fell by more than 5% to $25,650 per coin, which was the lowest value in three months. Cryptocurrency Binance BNB fell over 9% to $276 per coin.