Key Takeaways
- Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder has stepped down from his position after roughly two years at the company.
- Additionally, Binance.US is cutting 100 positions from its workforce.
- Binance.US has faced increasing regulatory scrutiny this year, with lawsuits from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The crypto exchange is also currently being probed by the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ).
Chief Legal Officer Norman Reed will take over Binance.US as its interim CEO. This is the first change in the company's top executive in two years. Previous CEO Brian Brooks, who was a former Acting Comptroller of the Currency in the U.S. Department of Treasury, left the crypto exchange after only three months on the job.
More Than 100 Positions Cut at Binance.US
Binance.US is laying off 100 staff members in the second round of cuts this year. Earlier this year, an undisclosed number of employees were removed shortly after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against the crypto exchange, its global affiliate, and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.
A Binance.US spokesperson said that this week's layoffs will allow the exchange to operate with seven years of runway. Binance.US was originally created as a separate entity from Binance's global crypto exchange due to the different financial regulations found in the U.S. as compared to most of the rest of the world. After the SEC crackdown earlier in the year, Binance.US lost its banking partners and transitioned to a crypto-only exchange. Currently, the exchange uses a workaround involving the stablecoin Tether to enable users to get funds on the platform.In addition to the lawsuit from the SEC, Binance.US also faces a suit from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and an ongoing probe from the U.S. Department Of Justice. That said, the U.S. DOJ has not filed any charges against the exchange or its affiliates at this time.
The exit of Shroder follows a string of other major players leaving Binance. Other recent departures include two executives who oversaw the exchange's Eastern European and Russian activities, the head of the exchange's global fiat business, their global head of product, and the head of their business in the Asia-Pacific region.
"The SEC's aggressive attempts to cripple our industry and the resulting impacts on our business have real-world consequences for American jobs and innovation, and this is an unfortunate example of that," a Binance.US spokesperson said in a statement.