Binance, SEC agrees to allow only US employees to access customer funds

June 17 (Reuters) – Binance, Binance.US and the U.S. securities regulator reached an agreement to ensure that only Binance.US employees could access customer funds in the short term, according to court filings.

Under the agreement, which still needs sign-off from the federal judge overseeing the case, Binance.US will take steps to ensure that no Binance Holdings officials have access to private keys for its various wallets, hardware wallets or root access to Binance. US Amazon Web Services utility, the filings showed.

The proposed deal comes after the SEC sued Binance, its CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao and its operator Binance.US last week, in a dramatic escalation of a crackdown on the industry by US regulators. The SEC also sued major U.S. exchange Coinbase ( COIN.O ) after that.

Binance.US and the SEC did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

The US subsidiary of Binance halted dollar deposits last week and gave customers until June 13 to withdraw their dollar money, after the SEC asked a court to freeze the assets.

Other provisions of the proposed agreement would see Binance.US create new crypto wallets that the global exchange’s staff do not have access to, provide additional information to the SEC and agree to an expedited discovery schedule, the filings said.

Reporting by Baranjot Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates and Louise Heavens

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