(Reuters) -Binance and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have jointly asked a federal judge to stay the regulator’s lawsuit against the crypto exchange, according to a court filing, citing the potential impact of a newly launched task force.
The move to stay for 60 days, which requires the judge’s approval, marks the first clear effort to retreat from the SEC’s previous crypto enforcement under Democratic leadership.
In a motion filed late Monday, the parties said the SEC’s task force, formed last month to work on crypto regulations, may “impact and facilitate the potential resolution of this case”.
The stay could be an early sign of the SEC’s pivot to a more crypto-friendly stance, reflecting President Donald Trump’s pledge to make the U.S. a global hub for the industry.
Reuters previously reported the SEC, under Republican leadership, was expected to begin a review of existing court cases like those against Binance, where the regulator has argued the firms are listing crypto tokens that behave like securities.
The regulator sued Binance, its U.S. unit and founder Changpeng Zhao in June 2023, accusing them of artificially inflating trading volumes, diverting customer funds and misleading investors about its market surveillance controls.
Last year, a federal judge ruled that the majority of the lawsuit could proceed. The regulator is also locked in a dispute with another crypto exchange Coinbase.
“The SEC’s case has always been without merit and we are eager to put this behind us and to continue our focus on keeping Binance the most secure, licensed and trusted exchange in the world,” a spokesperson for Binance said, while thanking interim SEC Chair Mark Uyeda.
Lawyers for the regulator did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The Commission’s handling of crypto has been marked by legal imprecision and commercial impracticality… It took us a long time to get into this mess, and it is going to take us some time to get out of it,” SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, who is leading the task force, said in a statement earlier this month.
Trump picked crypto-friendly Washington lawyer Paul Atkins as the new chair of the SEC, while prominent Republicans have ramped up efforts to curb what some have called “Operation Chokepoint 2.0” – the alleged denial of financial services to crypto companies.
Atkins has yet to be confirmed by Congress, but the SEC has already started shifting priorities under its existing Republican leadership, reassigning some of its crypto enforcement lawyers to other areas and tightening oversight of investigations.
The changes, alongside a government effort to encourage federal employees to leave their jobs, have spooked staff.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru and Chris Prentice in New York; Editing by Leroy Leo and Chizu Nomiyama )
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