Binance removes AMP after being deemed a security by the Securities and Exchange Commission

Binance announced today that it will remove AMP from its U.S. platform on August 15, pending regulatory clarification of the token’s classification.

AMP and eight other tokens have been classified as securities by the Securities and Exchange Commission in a recent court filing. Binance, which has recently made efforts to comply with regulators after much criticism for previously being too lax with anti-money laundering and know-your-customer requirements.

Awaiting regulatory clarity

The leading crypto exchange announced on its blog its intention to remove Flexa’s AMP token on August 15 from its US platform. The move comes after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) named AMP as collateral in a fraud case involving a former Coinbase employee.

Binance said that while AMP had previously passed the risk assessment process the exchange uses to decide whether to list a token, the recent SEC filing pushed the company to delist the token.”out of an abundance of caution.“Binance indicated that it would wait for further regulatory clarity before re-listing the token.

Interestingly, the exchange suggested that AMP would only be delisted on its Binance.US platform, meaning that Binance customers in other parts of the world will likely still have access to AMP trading services. AMP’s repositories will be closed on August 15.

The SEC designated AMP and eight other tokens as securities in a ruling on July 21 before announcing five days later that it was investigating Coinbase for listing securities. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said last week that he sees no significant differences between crypto exchanges and securities exchanges, and that both should be regulated similarly.

Despite the recent market downturn, Binance handles more than $17 billion in daily trading volume, and its U.S. arm, Binance.US, handles more than $400 million. Binance has been criticized in the past by regulators for lax compliance with anti-money laundering rules. However, the exchange has recently made efforts to tighten its requirements.