June 17 Reuters Binance, the world39;s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, and Binance.US have entered into an agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to ensure that U.S. customer assets remain in the United States until a sweeping lawsuit filed this month by the regulatory agency is resolved.

The agreement, disclosed in court papers filed late on Friday, still requires the approval of the federal judge overseeing the litigation. To make certain that U.S. customer assets do not go offshore, the agreement allows only Binance.US employees access to these assets.

The SEC on June 5 sued Binance, its CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao and Binance.US39;s operator, alleging that Binance artificially inflated its trading volumes, diverted customer funds, failed to restrict U.S. customers from its platform and misled investors about its market surveillance controls.

The suit and one filed by the SEC the following day against major U.S. exchange Coinbase represented a dramatic escalation of a crackdown on the industry by U.S. regulators.

Under the agreement, which does not resolve the SEC lawsuit, Binance.US will take steps to make sure that no Binance Holdings officials have access to private keys for its various wallets, hardware wallets or root access to Binance.US39;s Amazon Web Services tools, the court filings showed.

The SEC said in a statement released on Saturday that the emergency relief order secured for Binance.US customers will protect their assets and…