The United States Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Binance as to whether it broke security rules by selling digital tokens during the launch of the BNB token during an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) that was done five years ago, As reported by Bloomberg on Monday.

The Binance platform is currently the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world and the BNB is the fifth-largest cryptocurrency.

An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) occurs when a company offers for the first time its crypto coin to public investors. The BNB ICO took place in July 2017 on several platforms during the height of the ICO boom and a few days after that, the Binance exchange platform was launched.

The US regulators are prying into the origin of the firm and that of its BNB token, investigating if the ICO was the sale of a security that should have been registered with the agency, As reported by anonymous persons who were allowed to discuss the probe in confidentiality.

This scrutiny would be a troubling development for Binance as it is already subject to several U.S Federal investigations which include another SEC probe. The exchange is also undergoing an investigation from the U.S Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Its branch in the UK was ordered to cease activities in the country by the Financial Conduct Authorities. In addition, Binance was ordered to cease operations in Ontario, Canada last June.

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