New Binance chief stresses compliance

PARIS: The new chief executive officer (CEO) of the world’s top crypto platform stressed the importance of regulatory compliance for Binance’s future success, months after its former chief executive pleaded guilty to violating US anti-money laundering laws, and it paid $4.3 billion to settle charges.

In an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP) during a visit to Paris for a cryptocurrency sector conference, Richard Teng said his aim is to keep Binance a “user-focused, user-first organization” that helped propel its success.

But he said Binance also needs to be compliance-focused, and the additional regulation of the sector would provide greater clarity for industry players.

“We want to make sure that compliance is… a competitive advantage” for Binance, Teng said Tuesday.

He said Binance had spent hundreds of millions of dollars on compliance and was working very closely with regulators, including putting into place at their insistence a global board of directors with three independent directors.

“Our board of directors will become our stewards guiding us in terms of direction to go, making sure that we adopt the best practices,” Teng said.

Binance was created in 2017 and cornered much of the crypto-trading market, turning its founder and chief executive Changpeng Zhao into a billionaire.

Binance runs crypto exchanges and provides other services around the world, but it took a severe hit when crypto markets collapsed and regulators began probing the legality of its business.

The volatile industry surged in 2021 with a range of complex products and celebrity endorsements propelling it to a valuation in excess of $3 trillion in 2022.

But a series of scandals, including the November 2022 collapse of Binance’s main rival exchange FTX and criminal charges for several industry executives, saw public confidence evaporate and investors pull their money out of crypto.

As part of a settlement reached last November with US authorities, Zhao pleaded guilty to violating US anti-money laundering laws and agreed to step down from his position. Binance agreed in February to pay $4.3 billion to settle charges.