Binance Head of Non-US Operations is Set to Takeover if CZ Resigns

• If Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, or CZ, resigns from his post in the near future, Richard Teng is expected to take over. 
• The exchange is facing investigations from multiple US authorities, along with regulators in Canada and Australia. 
• Richard Teng was appointed as the head of all operations outside the United States a few weeks ago. 
• After onboarding the crypto exchange just two years ago, Teng has become the primary candidate for the post of CEO.

---

The authorities in the United States, including the Commodity and Futures Trading Committee (CFTC) and others, filed regulatory action against the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, and its co-founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ in the crypto space, for violation of US laws. In light of these events, if the billionaire resigns from his executive position, it is expected that Richard Teng, who was recently appointed as the head of all the markets outside the US, will take over as the chief executive of the firm. 

As per a report from Bloomberg citing people with direct knowledge of the matter, Binance has decided that if CZ were to resign due to the actions taken by the US authorities, Teng would take over. Interestingly, according to previous reports, Teng was previously the director of corporate finance at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, or MAS, the central bank and financial regulatory authority of Singapore. 

This report comes at a time when the leading crypto exchange has been facing issues in Australia as well. The firm’s payment partner in the country cut it off, resulting in the local users of the exchange being unable to deposit Australian dollars on the platform via bank transfer. The unforeseen move from the Australian partner of Binance resulted in the exchange putting a stop to all the trading pairs about two weeks later. 

Bloomberg reported that at least four regulators around the globe are currently investigating the crypto exchange and are considering bringing enforcement action against it. These include authorities in Australia, Canada, and the US. Moreover, the regulators in Dubai have also tightened the licensing of crypto exchange platforms like Binance. 

Meanwhile, two weeks prior to the exchange’s Australian partner Cuscal ending its agreement with the exchange, Binance’s partner in the UK also decided to stop supporting the crypto firm for transactions in British pounds. 

As reported earlier by Bitnation, Changpeng Zhao recently held an “Ask Me Anything” session on Twitter Spaces and revealed that his crypto exchange has no plans to engage in hardware crypto mining despite owning one of the largest crypto mining pools in the world. Zhao said that there are many other firms that have done and will do better in the industry than his exchange. 

CZ also revealed that his firm’s development team is working on multiple solutions to integrate the Lightning Network into the trading platform. The Binance executive believes that the Lightning Network is a must-have for all the crypto exchanges in the world. 

“Eventually, I think every exchange will have to support the Lighting Network. The earlier we can do it, the better. Then users can enjoy its benefits, like saved costs with faster transactions. It would be a helpful innovation for the future, especially for Binance Pay and different wallet services,” said the executive. 

It is also important to note that the leading crypto firm’s goal of expanding operations worldwide is currently in full effect. Recently, the crypto exchange’s venture with Gulf Innova, Gulf Binance, resulted in the venture being granted a digital asset operator license from the Ministry of Finance of Thailand. CZ’s exchange is also set to expand operations in Japan following the acquisition of Sakura Exchange Bitcoin (SEBC) in November 2022.

Latest News