The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is looking into whether the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange issued unlicensed securities by way of an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in 2017.
What Happened: According to a Monday report from Bloomberg, confidential sources revealed that the SEC was investigating Binance for the issuance of its cryptocurrency token Binance Coin (CRYPTO: BNB).
BNB currently has a market cap of $46 billion, making it the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap after Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), excluding stablecoins USDT and USDC.
The token is also the native token of the Binance Chain – a blockchain launched by the crypto exchange that facilitates token swaps and decentralized trading among other DeFi-related activities.
See Also: IS BINANCE SMART CHAIN HERE TO STAY?
At the time of the ICO in 2017, 200 million BNB tokens were initially distributed. The founding team was allocated 20 million BNB, angel investors were allocated 80 million BNB, and 100 million was distributed to retail investors via a public sale.
BNB traded at $0.15 at the time and the crypto exchange raised $15 million from the ICO. At its all-time high, BNB traded ahead of $669, meaning that an investment in the ICO would have yielded a 465,900% gain.
According to data from Benzinga Pro, at press time, BNB was trading at $286, down 6% over the last 24 hours.
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