In what can be tagged the most crucial week for Binance Exchange and the broader crypto ecosystem, Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao, the co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company has named Richard Teng, the company’s former Head of Regional Markets as his replacement.
The Task Ahead for New Binance CEO
Until earlier this week when reports broke that the United States Justice Department of Justice has reached a $4.3 billion settlement with the exchange, almost no analyst saw this coming. With the end of the CZ era, Teng still has many hurdles to see the exchange through.
In the live broadcast from US regulators featuring US Attorney General Merrick Garland, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Rostin Behnam among others, Binance was accused of facilitating transactions for ISIS, Al Qaeda, and other terrorist groups until 2022 when the DOJ’s investigations intensified.
While the settlement has been reached and CZ has stepped down, the regulators said as part of the deal, Binance will have to file the suspicious activities report and turn over its records for further probe. This will become the major responsibility of Richard Teng with a ready threat that failure to comply with all terms might attract additional sanctions.
Richard Teng’s challenge will also be to rebuild trust in the exchange even though the trading platform still maintains dominance as the largest exchange with approximately $12.6 billion in trading volume per data from CoinMarketCap.
Implication for Other Exchanges
This is arguably the biggest win for US regulators thus far this year as the $4.3 billion settlement is tagged one of the largest corporate settlements in the country’s history.
Though the settlement excluded the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which also has a pending lawsuit against Binance, it underscores how much regulators might push for settlement as a quick win against most crypto firms.
The next high-profile case under the radar is the recent lawsuit filed against Kraken Exchange by the SEC. This is the second lawsuit filed against the firm this year and rather than embrace the initial settlement option it embraced earlier in the year, the exchange has unveiled its readiness to fight.