On Tuesday, reports indicated that the CEO and President of Binance US, Brian Shroder, had resigned from his position.
Now, it appears that there are two more executives who have decided to follow the former CEO out the door.
The departures
According to the Wall Street Journal, the latest departures from Binance US are that of Sidney Majalya, the Chief Risk Officer and Krishna Juvvadi, the legal head of the company.
The WSJ cited sources familiar with the matter in the report. Earlier this week, the departure of Shroder had been accompanied with a broader round of layoffs at the company.
The layoffs had affected about one-third of the workforce at Binance US. In the last year, these layoffs have become quite a common occurrence for crypto companies.
This includes the parent company of Binance US, Binance. The US subsidiary had been established to compete with Coinbase, the crypto exchange based in San Francisco.
However, it should be noted that the company has also experienced a series of departures from both the parent company as well as the American subsidiary this year.
These departures started after the chief market regulators in the United States filed a lawsuit against Binance.
The executives
Some of the previous executives who had left the company include Patrick Hillman, the company’s chief strategy officer, Steven Christie, the SVP for Compliance, and Mayur Kamat, the global head of product.
Hon NG, the general counsel, was also one of the executives who resigned. Norman Reed, the Chief Legal Officer at Binance US, will be taking over Brian Shroder’s position.
Shroder had taken over the position of Binance US CEO back in September 2021. This was after Brian Brooks had resigned and before that, the company’s first CEO, Catherine Coley had stepped down.
Binance announced last month that it was appointing a new money laundering reporting and compliance officer, Kristen Hecht.
The troubles
Both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the US have filed lawsuits against the exchange.
The sweeping allegations made by each agency range from market manipulation to securities fraud as well as the commingling of client assets.
The regulators have also alleged that even though Binance US is meant to be independent from the parent company, it is closely tied to it.
This has resulted in concerns about the stability it can offer to American clients. Entrepreneur and ‘Shark Tank’ star, Kevin O’Leary had predicted that the lawsuits would use up all the oxygen of Binance.
So far, the chief executive and founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, has opted to disregard the concerns associated with the departures.
The CEO has said that this is just ‘FUD’ i.e. Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. He has also criticized people for calling Binance as the next FTX.
He asserted that they have become a lot stronger than they were two years earlier and that they have made progress in terms of regulatory compliance.
Despite the legal troubles and executive departures, Binance continues to be the world’s largest crypto exchange in terms of trading volume.