Binance and Binance.US have made their case against the SEC’s motion to freeze all Binance.US funds.

IThe SEC sued US and Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, and from reading their initial comments, it seems like the stakes are very high. But by the end of the day, we might have a clearer idea of how the case is developing and what the judge thinks of the current arguments.

The narrative.

Binance.US and Binance filed their first responses to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Monday, arguing that the regulator’s push for a temporary restraining order would prevent it from paying employees, vendors or anyone else. The filings also previewed their defense against the SEC’s actual charges.

Why it matters.

Last week, the SEC leveled some rather significant charges against Binance. These accusations will be tested in court for the first time today.

Binance.US responded dramatically to the SEC’s request for a restraining order, warning that if granted, the business would cease to exist. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, of the D.C. District Court, ordered Binance and Binance.US to describe any differences in their proposed stipulations by 1:00 p.m. ET (17:00 UTC), an hour before the hearing is set to begin.

In addition, she commanded the SEC to specify what modifications to the Binance.US proposal it requires in order for it to be acceptable to the organization, “in lieu of the proposed” temporary restraining order.

“No additional argument or explication may be submitted by any party at this time,” the judge ordered.

There aren’t any significant distinctions between Binance.Although the Binance file also includes root access to Amazon Web Services instances as part of the software that may be implicated, US and Binance’s suggested conditions largely concern capitalisation.

Any limits must apply to both staking services and AWS access, according to the SEC’s filing.