Binance’s New CEO Is the Opposite of CZ—And That’s the Point

When Binance CEO Richard Teng took over from his predecessor Changpeng “CZ” Zhao in November, he knew he was getting into some massive sneakers. 

However the newly appointed government of the world’s largest crypto change by day by day buying and selling quantity stated he by no means supposed to be the subsequent CZ—not less than insofar as making an attempt to match one among crypto’s greatest personalities.

“I do not suppose I can fill these gigantic sneakers,” Teng advised Decrypt in an interview. “It was by no means the intention.”

In actual fact, Teng, who’s believed to be 54 or 55, hopes to depart his mark on Binance by doing simply the alternative. CZ’s “an enormous, he is an icon, he is a legend inside this business,” Teng stated. “However what’s necessary is he has left an important enterprise and he entrusted that enterprise within the fingers of myself” and key managers.

Throughout the previous yr underneath Teng, Binance has undergone a collection of structural and strategic adjustments geared toward making the corporate extra palatable to a brand new, hyper-wary crop of regulators and coverage makers. He identified that Binance has now adopted a extra conventional company management construction consisting of a board with three members, is specializing in hiring compliance and authorized professionals, and is working to safe extra licenses to function in new markets.

The brand new CEO is way extra cautious—and much much less flamboyant—than CZ, who’s eternally barred from returning to the change he based. 

Born in Singapore, the soft-spoken Teng spent a lot of his profession as a civil servant, serving because the director of company finance at Singapore’s prime regulatory authority for 13 years. He later labored as chief regulatory officer of the Singapore Trade after which as CEO of the Abu Dhabi International Market. 

He joined Binance in 2021, and most not too long ago served as its world head of regional markets.

Below Teng, Binance has secured regulatory licenses to function in Dubai, Kazakhstan, and Thailand, increasing its presence in key rising markets. And simply final month, the change acquired the inexperienced gentle to function in India, one of many largest crypto markets on the planet. The spate of approvals underscores a vital focus for Teng throughout his tenure: Ramping up Binance’s regulatory compliance efforts.

Binance’s elevated deal with regulatory compliance comes as stringent regulatory frameworks reminiscent of Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Belongings Regulation (MiCA) are coming into impact. 

“The [crypto industry] panorama has shifted fairly a good bit,” Teng stated. “There are an increasing number of guidelines and laws coming into this house. The course of journey could be very clear.”  

This can be a marked distinction from Binance’s previous. The change has a protracted historical past of combating with federal regulators and regulation enforcement. Up to now two years, the buying and selling platform has encountered points in practically each nook of the globe, as regulatory scrutiny of crypto exchanges has intensified.

In 2023, Australian financial institution Westpac banned its clients from sending funds to Binance, forcing the change to cease supporting  Australian greenback deposits and withdrawals from financial institution accounts—a serious disruption to the buying and selling platform’s operations in Asia-Pacific.

In the meantime, Binance pulled out of Canada in Could 2023, citing the implementation of latest laws for digital belongings there. 

And throughout the Atlantic, the change has hardly fared any higher. Binance was compelled to rethink its European enlargement plans in 2023 after German and Dutch regulators declined to grant the corporate licenses. The buying and selling platform additionally confronted an investigation into its anti-money laundering practices in France that very same yr. 

However its issues within the U.S. grew to become notably acute for the change’s charismatic founder. In November 2023, Binance and CZ pled responsible to failing to take care of an efficient anti-money laundering program. The change paid $4.3 billion to settle the case, and, as a part of the huge settlement, CZ was sentenced to 4 months at a correctional facility in California.  

He was launched from jail final week, however stays barred from rejoining Binance’s C-suite.

In fact, it stays to be seen whether or not CZ’s ouster from the corporate seems to be a boon for Binance.

Below its new chief, the agency boasts a extra conventional, buttoned-up air, very like that of Teng himself. Whereas CZ looks as if Crypto Twitter personified—identified for lobbing insults at mainstream media retailers and dismissing unfavorable studies about his firm’s operations as “FUD”—Teng is deliberate and diplomatic in his interactions with the press and the general public.  

Amid Teng’s efforts to distance the corporate from its scrappy, shadowy roots, the agency can be planning to rent extra compliance-focused workers and different professionals, a transfer that might assist additional restore the corporate’s picture. Binance’s web site lists roughly 353 job postings as of publication time; greater than 70 are earmarked for compliance or legal-related roles.

Teng additionally stated the corporate is actively engaged on establishing a world headquarters for the corporate—one thing its leaders have vowed to do for years resulting from strain from regulators and regulation enforcement businesses.

“Within the final 10 months, I believe what has been important… is that [Binance] is a fairly totally different enterprise,” he stated. 

When requested about Binance’s progress in choosing a location for its world headquarters, Teng declined to place a timeline on the method or disclose which cities the change is contemplating. Later, he reduce quick a query about Binance’s worldwide arm beforehand serving U.S. customers, and he forged doubt on a report that Binance had processed trades from mainland China-based customers with the straightforward rationalization that Binance would not publicly disclose its person knowledge.

The evasive responses have been blander and extra polished than one thing CZ might need stated. And that, undoubtedly, was the entire level.

Extra reporting by Sander Lutz

Edited by Andrew Hayward