- Binance.US Chief Executive Officer Brian Shroder has left the firm.
- This comes at a time when the Binance.US has laid off about a third of its workforce.
- The crypto firm has intimated that legal aggression by the Security Exchange Commission (SEC)’s is to blame.
The pressure of legal action against Binance.US, the United States arm of Binance seems to have began to affect the firm publicly. Up to now, the crypto firm had been putting a strong face despite the onslaught from the regulator.
The pressure has come in form of layoffs of about a third of its staff. According to Associated Press, Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder has already left the company. This was confirmed to them by the crypto firm’s spokesperson, who also added that the chief legal officer Norman Reeds is now serving as the interim CEO.
Shroder joined Binance.US as president in September 2021 and was named CEO in October. This month marks the completion of his second year with the Crypto firm
“The actions we are taking provide Binance.US with more than seven years of financial runway and enable us to continue to serve our customers while we operate as a crypto-only exchange,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Legal Actions by US Regulators are to Blame
The crypto firm pointed out that the legal action by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier this year has impacted their business negatively. It is no secret that Binance.US has trended for the better part this year for the wrong reasons.
Bad news, legal action from the U.S. regulator and accusations from the same agency that there is a likelihood of financial misappropriations have painted the crypto firm in a bad light.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and its founder Changpeng Zhao have faced extensive litigation from U.S. regulators this year.
The company claims the SEC’s aggressive attempts to cripple their industry and the resulting impact on their business has had real-world consequences and in this case, it has come in the form of redundancies.
The agency in June filed a civil complaint against Binance, and its founder Changpeng Zhao, accusing them of creating Binance.US as part of a “web of deception” to evade securities laws aimed at protecting U.S. investors. The regulator also accused the crypto firm and its majority shareholder of “conflict of interest, lack of disclosure and calculated evasion of the law”.
Even though the Crypto firm has denied Zhao’s involvement in Binance.US, arguing that the US arm of the firm operates independently, Zhao is the main shareholder of both entities.
This move by Shroder, whether intentional or coincidental is likely to dampen the spirits of the investors as well as users of the crypto trading platform.
Steady Decline
Binance.US has seen a steady decline in its offering and market share. In June, the exchange suspended dollar deposits and at the same time informed its customers it would suspend fiat withdrawal as the battle with the SEC continued. The crypto exchange then transitioned to a crypto-only exchange for two months and only opened a path for USD ramps again in August when it formalized a partnership with MoonPay.
In July, Reuters reported that Binance.US’ market share had plummeted as of June 26 to 0.9% from 22% in April according to data from Kaiko.
