Investing.com – The cryptocurrency market as a whole is in the red on Tuesday morning, with , down 5.6% since yesterday, and Ethereum near $1,750, down more than 6% over 24 hours.
But the major cryptocurrency showing the biggest drop today is Binance Coin (BNB), currently the 5th largest digital currency by capitalization, which plunged 9% over 24 hours and more than 11% over a week. .
In addition to the bearish trend in cryptocurrencies, BNB’s sharp drop is also explained by the fact that Bloomberg revealed yesterday that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is examining whether Binance’s initial offering of its token (BNB) in 2017 was an unregistered securities offering that should have been registered with the regulatory agency.
Recall that Binance is also the subject of investigations in the United States by the Department of Justice, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Internal Revenue Service.
According to Bloomberg, the SEC would also investigate market-making firms owned or partially owned by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao that do business with Binance.US, a US subsidiary of the global exchange.
Finally, note that BNB was created in July 2017 as an ERC-20 token on the blockchain before moving to a separate Binance chain. The initial offering of 100 million tokens at 15 cents per token raised $15 million. BNB can be traded directly, used to make purchases and payments, and pay a reduced rate on Binance’s transaction fees, and is currently trading at $282.90.