Binance and its former CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, are pushing back against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) recent claims that several crypto tokens constitute unregistered securities. On November 4, Binance’s legal team filed a motion to dismiss the SEC’s amended complaint, which targets tokens like Axie Infinity Shards, Filecoin, Cosmos’ ATOM, The Sandbox’s SAND, and Decentraland’s MANA.

Binance’s legal defense argues that the SEC’s revised claims are legally flawed. The team states that while the court previously recognized that crypto assets could be part of investment contracts, each transaction must independently meet securities regulations. Binance’s lawyers assert that the SEC’s complaint “pays lip service” to this ruling, pushing a stance that nearly all crypto transactions, including secondary market sales, are securities transactions solely based on potential buyer expectations.

The SEC’s revised complaint distinguishes between Binance’s initial coin offerings and “blind” transactions. These transactions, facilitated through the Binance and Binance.US platforms, allegedly allowed buyers to purchase tokens without knowing Binance Holdings was the seller. Binance argues that this model is common in the crypto industry, where “blind transactions” prevent buyers from identifying the original seller. Similar arguments have surfaced in other cases, such as Ripple’s XRP sales, where a judge ruled that some token transactions did not violate securities laws due to their “blind” nature.

Binance’s filing represents the latest chapter in its ongoing legal clash with the SEC, which initially sued the company in June 2023. After serving a short prison sentence related to Anti-Money Laundering violations, CZ continues to confront U.S. regulatory scrutiny with this latest motion aiming to quash the SEC’s updated charges.