Crypto markets dipped Monday after the SEC suit accused Binance and its chief executive, Changpeng Zhao, of offering unregistered securities, commingling user deposits and blowing up trading volumes

Cryptocurrency traders suffered some $320mln of losses in liquidations over the last 24 hours, according to data by CoinGlass, as crypto prices slumped Monday after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued crypto exchange giant Binance for supposedly infringing securities laws.

Some $289mln of long positions – traders who speculate on prices to increase – were stamped out during the day, marking the highest level of long liquidations in at least three months, according to Coinglass.

Crypto markets dipped Monday after the Securities and Exchange Commission suit accused Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange in terms of trading volume, and its chief executive, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, of offering unregistered securities, commingling user deposits and blowing up trading volumes.

Tokens cited in the lawsuit as unregistered securities – Binance’s BNB, solana (SOL), cardano (ADA), and  others – led the drop, declining as much as 10 per cent over the day. Bitcoin (BTC), the biggest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, dropped below $26k for the first time since mid-March, as per the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (XBX).

The large amounts of liquidations indicate that the sudden decline in prices caught most investors off-guard. Overall, around 119,000 crypto traders were liquidated in 24 hours, according to Coinglass.

BTC traders booked most of the losses, nearly $119mln. Ether (ETH) investors suffered $41mln of losses as the token’s price dropped below $1,800. Some $6.5mln of BNB trading positions were stamped out as the token dropped steeply.

Binance traders suffered $105mln of losses, the most on any of the exchanges, followed by $88mln of losses on OKX and $43mln on ByBit, as per CoinGlass.