Binance.US wins in Florida lawsuit

Success for Binance in the US. A Florida appeals court rules that the blocking was not legally valid following CZ's guilty plea. A state court ruled this on May 22.

The Florida license suspension was in response to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao's guilty plea for violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws. It was a unanimous decision by the Court of Appeals. The decision was made on the basis that the Financial Supervisory Authority had not adequately justified the blocking of Binance.US at the time.

"The use of "may" in the law [cited by the supervisor] implies discretion rather than obligation. Suspension of the license requires additional justification beyond mere reference to the law," the court said.

Binance filed a non-public appeal of the original decision on March 25. However, Binance.US stated only on its website that "onboarding of new users in the state is temporarily paused". The other US states in which Binance.US operations have been suspended or license renewal denied are Alaska, Maine, North Carolina and Oregon.