The U.S. affiliate of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance has laid off one-third of its staff, or more than 100 employees. Brian Shroder, the chief executive officer, has also departed the company, a Binance.US spokesperson told Forkast on Wednesday.
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Fast facts
- This downsizing effort will provide Binance.US “more than seven years of financial runway,” the company spokesperson told Forkast in an email statement.
- “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,” the spokesperson added.
- The crypto exchange has been dealing with growing regulatory pressures in the U.S. this year. In June, the company was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for allegedly violating securities regulations.
- Norman Reed, the company’s chief legal officer, assumed Shroder’s position on an interim basis, the Binance.US spokesperson confirmed with Forkast.
- Binance, the parent company, also faces regulatory scrutiny from the U.S. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a civil suit against the exchange and founder Changpeng Zhao in March for operating an “intentionally opaque” business to take advantage of “regulatory arbitrage.”
- The U.S. Department of Justice is also reported to be closely monitoring Binance with the possibility of pursuing fraud charges against the trading platform.
- Last week, Binance’s global head of product Mayur Kamat resigned from the company, according to Reuters.
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