Binance.US, a popular cryptocurrency exchange, has reportedly experienced a significant drop in its U.S. market share due to an ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit. In contrast, rival Coinbase saw an approximately 7% rise in June.

Binance.US, a well-known digital currency exchange based in the United States, has allegedly witnessed a substantial decrease in its market share by more than 20%, amidst a lawsuit filed by federal financial regulators.

A report published on July 5 by Reuters, referencing data from Kaiko, revealed that Binance.US’s market share in the U.S plummeted from over 22% in April to approximately 0.9% by June 26. This came as the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initiated a lawsuit against Binance.US, its parent company Binance, and CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao in June. The SEC accused them of operating as an unregistered securities exchange. This followed a similar lawsuit against Binance and CZ, filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in March.

Coinbase, in contrast, faces a similar SEC lawsuit but has seen an upward trend. According to data from Reuters, the cryptocurrency exchange’s market share in the U.S escalated from around 48% to 55% in June. This surge might be associated with at least three SEC filings mentioning Coinbase as a surveillance partner in asset managers’ endeavors to launch a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States.

Cointelegraph noted on July 5 that the aggregate spot and derivatives trading volume on centralized exchanges swelled to more than $2.7 trillion. This can be partly credited to improved investor sentiment following BlackRock’s application for a spot Bitcoin ETF. However, the SEC has yet to greenlight any spot cryptocurrency ETF in the U.S, having denied numerous applications from the same firms.