As you may remember, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Binance and Coinbase last June for violating securities law.
In this case, the SEC accuses Binance of facilitating trading in cryptocurrencies such as Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), and BUSD. Claiming that some cryptocurrencies are securities, the SEC argues that these cryptocurrencies are unregistered securities because they are not registered with the SEC.
According to Coindesk, while the Binance-SEC case is still ongoing, support came to Binance from stablecoin issuer Circle.
This intervention application of Circle, which was involved in the Binance-SEC case as an 'amicus curiae' (a person who assists the court by providing information and expertise on the subject of the case, but is not a party to the case), was made by Chief Legal Officer Heath Tarbert, the former president of CTFC. Circle is supported by Heath Tarbert.
In the application, Circle claims that stablecoin buyers do not expect a profit, so stablecoins are not an investment contract.
At this point, USDC issuer Circle intervened in the SEC's lawsuit against Binance, arguing that securities laws should not apply to stablecoins.
“Payment stablecoins by themselves do not have the basic characteristics of an investment contract, which means they are outside the jurisdiction of the SEC.
Decades of case law support the view that selling assets without expecting a profit is not enough to establish an investment contract.
At this point, Circle argues that dollar-linked assets such as BUSD and its own USDC cannot constitute securities, in part because their users do not expect any profit from independent purchases.”
*This is not investment advice.
