Binance: Is management fleeing the company?
Concern about Binance is spreading. Rumor has it that management is fleeing the company. The background to this is regulatory conflicts that are constantly increasing. The management staff is dissatisfied with the reaction of the managing director CZ and is therefore now pulling the ripcord. Those affected deny the thesis.
Binance: Is management fleeing the company?
Is the management of the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance fleeing the company? This impression could arise in the course of many layoffs. An unknown informant confirmed to the news portal Fortune: Binance is in a leadership crisis.
The people affected have now presented this differently in public. The fact that Steve Milton, Patrick Hillmann, Han Ng and Steven Christie resigned Binance within a few days offers room for speculation. Shortly before, Matthew Price, another leader, left the crypto exchange.
The data subjects worked for Binance in the roles of marketing director, strategy chief, chief legal officer and chief of the regulatory department. Matthew Price recruited the crypto exchange in 2021 as a former employee of the US tax authority IRS. He worked as an investigative supervisor.
Some of the terminations were not made in public. Their disclosure is thanks to an unknown whistleblower who reported to Fortune. He also claimed that Ng, Christie and Hillmann quit the crypto exchange as they were unhappy with company founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao‘s response to ongoing investigations.
Is Binance breaking down due to internal conflicts?
According to the informant, Binance is said to be caught up in internal conflicts as the US Department of Justice is investigating the crypto exchange. It involves the allegation that the company deliberately circumvented regulatory requirements and tried to cover up this fact so that regulators would not get wind of it.
This thesis is part of a lawsuit filed by the US supervisory authority CFTC in the spring of this year. The outcome is uncertain so far.
Ng, Christie and Hillman were so unhappy with Zhao’s response that they considered resigning as a last resort. However, the informant does not explain exactly why this argument came about.
The fact is that the founder and managing director of CZ, at least in public, rejects any accusation against himself and his company. Insider information, on the other hand, is intended to prove that he already informed the management level of his company in 2019 to follow official requirements as little as possible.
The requirements of the US authorities are simply so high that active business operations would be disrupted by them. At the time, CZ was still convinced: the crypto exchange already offers US authorities such a large area of attack that the omission of individual requirements would not be explicitly taken up by the supervisory authorities.
Patrick Hillmann, who publicly shared his resignation on Twitter, expressly stated that regulatory conflicts were not a reason for him to leave the company. He has already experienced several times of crisis at Binance. Rather, personal reasons are the background to the termination. Hillmann is expecting a second child and must therefore begin a new episode in his life, he explains.
I’ve been here for two years and it’s about time I took on the next challenge. I have guided this company through a variety of industry crises and regulatory challenges – from Luna to 3AC to FTX. Despite all these challenges, the company has continued to grow and prosper.
Steven Christie also made a public statement following his resignation. The media representation is misleading, he writes. “I would like to correct some articles that were published today. I can confirm that I am indeed leaving Binance. However, the reasons for my resignation are very different from those reported.”
This is how Changpeng Zhao reacted to the allegations
Changpeng Zhao himself describes the allegations on Twitter as false reports and scaremongering. The dismissals of the leading employees did not take place in rapid succession, but over the course of several weeks.
According to CZ, the alleged backgrounds do not exist. Binance is always exposed to particularly rapid changes due to a rapidly changing crypto market. You can also experience this in the area of personnel.
There is renewed scaremongering about some layoffs. Yes, there is turnover (in every company). But the reasons that the “news portals” came up with are completely wrong.
