The CFTC sued Binance in March, alleging it breached the Commodity Exchange Act and certain related federal regulations

Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao have filed a motion to reject a complaint against the cryptocurrency exchange by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the firm said in a court filing on Thursday.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Binance, Zhao and former CCO Samuel Lim in March, alleging they breached the Commodity Exchange Act and certain related federal regulations, and for operating what the regulator said was an “illegal” exchange and a “sham” compliance program. Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, said the CFTC’s case should be rejected as it sought to regulate foreign individuals and corporations that reside and operate outside the US. It also quoted a 2007 ruling that mentioned: “US law governs domestically but does not rule the world.”

The holding company of Binance is based in the Cayman Islands, while Chief Executive Officer Zhao is a Canadian citizen. The CFTC’s complaint stated that from at least July 2019, Binance “offered and executed commodity derivatives transactions on behalf of US persons” in infringement of US laws. In its response, Binance said that by June 2019, Binance.com had begun carrying out steps to limit and off-board potential US users and make sure that new users were not US persons. Crucially, Binance.com didn’t begin to offer the alleged digital asset derivative products until July 2019 and later —after it started to limit and off-board potential U.S. users, the company added.

Lim filed a separate motion to deny the CFTC claims against him. Binance and Zhao were also sued by the US SEC in June for supposedly operating a “web of deception,” listing 13 charges against Binance, Zhao and the operator of its allegedly independent US exchange.