Traders moved more than $800mn out of Binance in the 24 hours after the crypto exchange was sued by the US securities regulator.

The flight underscores the jitters among traders as US authorities try to clamp down on illicit domestic crypto market activity. The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday alleged that Binance, led by chief executive Changpeng Zhao, had committed multiple violations of securities laws, including mixing customer assets, operating an unregistered securities exchange and offering unregistered securities. On Tuesday, the agency announced a lawsuit against Coinbase, another large crypto exchange.

The withdrawals data is based on more than $800mn of net outflows from Binance on the Ethereum network — one of the most commonly used blockchains in the crypto industry and the network where many decentralised finance projects are built — according to Nansen, a data provider. The total includes popular cryptocurrencies like ether, the second largest token by market cap, although it does not include bitcoin.