The CEO of the largest cryptocurrency platform in the world emphasised the significance of regulatory compliance for Binance’s future success, months after the company’s former CEO admitted guilt to breaking US anti-money laundering laws and paid USD 4.3 billion to settle charges.
Richard Teng stated that he wants to maintain Binance as the “user-focused, user-first organisation” that contributed to its success in an interview with AFP while in Paris for a conference on the cryptocurrency industry.
However, he did add that Binance must also prioritise compliance and that more industry regulation would give participants in the market more clarity.
“We want to make sure that compliance is, also, a competitive advantage” for Binance, Richard Teng said.
He said that Binance had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in compliance and was closely collaborating with authorities, establishing a global board of directors with three independent directors at their request, among other things.
“Our board of directors will become our stewards guiding us in terms of direction to go, making sure that we adopt the best practices,” Richard Teng said.
Binance was founded in 2017 and quickly gained market share in the cryptocurrency trading space, making its CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao a billionaire.
When the cryptocurrency markets crashed and authorities started looking into the legitimacy of Binance’s operations, the company—which operates cryptocurrency exchanges and offers other services globally—suffered a serious setback.
The unstable sector saw a boom in 2021, and a variety of sophisticated products and celebrity endorsements helped it reach a valuation of more than USD 3 trillion in 2022.
But after a string of scandals, which included the main rival exchange of Binance collapsing in November 2022 and the indictment of multiple industry executives, investors withdrew their money from cryptocurrency, and public confidence evaporated.
Changpeng Zhao admitted to breaking US anti-money laundering regulations and agreed to resign from his post as part of a settlement struck with US authorities in November of last year. Binance consented to settle charges in February by paying USD 4.3 billion.