The US has imposed sanctions against multiple cryptocurrency companies this year. These included both digital asset trading platforms and cryptocurrency issuers.
At the beginning of the summer, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the US regulator most closely involved with cryptocurrencies, filed 13 different charges against Binance, one of the world's largest digital asset trading platforms, including the sale of unregistered securities, and sued Coinbase for unregistered activity.
Dozens of cryptocurrencies were characterized as "securities" in these two important cases.
SEC officials later stated that many platforms, such as the companies in question, violated existing laws. The US was not only limited to the SEC's lawsuits and fines. The country's Treasury Department and Justice Department also took action against many cryptocurrency companies.
The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on a platform and a mining company originating from Russia for playing a role in ransomware.
The SEC also filed charges against Impact Theory, a Los Angeles-based entertainment company, making it the first NFT sanction this year.
Will Companies Sell Cryptocurrency for US Sanctions?
In 2022, there were also sanctions against Terraform Labs, the issuer of LUNA, which caused a collapse in the cryptocurrency market, FTX, which went bankrupt last year, and crypto lending platform Celsius, which went bankrupt, affected by the FTX collapse. 2023. It remains to be seen whether these companies and digital trading platforms will sell in order to repay the penalties for these sanctions and their users.
While it is thought that Binance will not sell, transfers to Celsius and FTX exchanges continue unabated.
4.7 Billion Debt Sale Potential
Celsius, which went bankrupt and recently moved to pay its creditors, owes more than 100,000 people and $4.7 billion, according to a lawsuit filed in the middle of this year.
Celsius, which was auctioned to Fahrenhein, a cryptocurrency investment consortium, and recently emerged from bankruptcy proceedings, will pay its customers $2 billion in Ethereum and Bitcoin.
Although there was no obligation to sell in this case, Celsius moved millions of dollars of Ethereum, Chainlink and Polygon to exchanges through its wallets this week.
Weekly Sale for Refunds
On the other hand, the new management that took control after the collapse of FTX announced that it had recovered more than $7 billion of the $8.7 billion debt. FTX, which stated in every statement that it wanted to pay its creditors in dollars, requested approval for the sale of a large amount of crypto money it held, and the court gave permission on condition that it did not exceed $ 100 million per week.
Solana (SOL), which FTX holds the most, experienced a huge decline with the approval on the possibility of sale, but the platform's weekly limit and Solana lock was welcomed positively again.
On the other hand, FTX's different wallets include Serum (SRM) worth $ 353 million, Maps (MAPS) worth $ 287 million, Bitcoin (BTC) worth $ 256 million, Ethereum (ETH) worth $ 160 million. It is estimated that this situation may bring a sales pressure on cryptocurrencies and lead to a decline in prices.
However, if the company sells and makes a refund, the possibility of reopening is interpreted positively in the market.
Will the Latest US Sanction Bring Sales?
Binance, another trading platform, agreed to pay $4.3 billion last week as part of an agreement as a result of the US Department of Justice's sanctions. Accordingly, the company's CEO Changpeng Zhao even resigned.
If the company wants to make a possible sale to pay this money, it has a total of 66.9 billion assets, including $ 20.5 billion in Bitcoin, $ 18.84 billion in Tether, $ 8 billion in Ethereum, $ 7 billion in BNB and billions of dollars in altcoins.
The company's new CEO Richard Teng signaled that they will not make any sales, stating that they have solid revenues thanks to their debt-free structure and modest expenses.
