Binance users withdrew 3,611 BTC (~$97.6 million at the time of writing) in a 24-hour period following the CFTC lawsuit. Data from Coinglass show this.
Competitor platforms, including Coinbase, Bitfinex and Gemini, recorded increases in Bitcoin reserves.
Total Bitcoin balances on exchanges have been declining since March 20. Over the past week, withdrawals totalled around 27,000 BTC (~$730 million).
Binance still holds digital assets worth $63.36 billion, including $2 billion in USDT, $17 billion in Bitcoin and $8.1 billion in Ethereum.
According to Thanefield Capital, in the hours before the CFTC indictment, the largest exchanges saw nearly $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency withdrawals. Of that, $850 million went out of Binance.
1/ Large on-chain movements prior to the Binance indictment
A few hours before the Binance CFTC Indictment, there were large stablecoin withdrawals across centralized exchanges, totaling almost $1.5B in just 12 hours
Notably, Binance itself saw an $850M outflow. pic.twitter.com/yLD7f1cgmB
— An Ape’s Prologue (@apes_prologue) March 27, 2023
On March 27, the CFTC filed a lawsuit against Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao. The regulator alleges that the platform violated derivatives-trading rules by operating without proper registration.
CoinDesk, citing Bernstein analysts, reports that in a possible settlement the Commission could require Binance to cease operations in the United States. However, experts expect the platform to defend its dominant international business, which remains its cash cow.
Zhao stated that the regulator’s claims contain ‘an incomplete account of the facts,’ and his company does not agree with the characterization of many points.
Earlier, on March 27, a court halted the sale of Voyager Digital assets by Binance.US, at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice.