While the Changpeng Zhao potential exit is one of the defined ways Binance looks to get back on track with regulators, the firm is also doing a lot to pacify watchdogs across the board.
Changpeng Zhao, the vocal and social media-friendly Chief Executive Officer of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance has reiterated his readiness to step down should the candidate with the right regulatory experience come along. Speaking at a virtual press conference Tuesday, Zhao, popularly known as ‘CZ’ on Twitter said despite his readiness to step down, there is no immediate plan for him to resign, however, Binance has a succession plan in place.
By far the largest cryptocurrency exchange platform by trading volume, Binance has come under a lot of regulatory scrutinies across various nations in the past year. While the exchange is embattled with regulators from the United States, Canada, and Japan on its toes, the United Kingdom, through the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) placed a ban on the trading platform’s affiliate, the Binance Markets Limited last month.
Regulators are now more critical of crypto exchanges as the purveyors of digital currencies whom they believe can destabilize the financial system. While other trading platforms have their fair share of the regulatory scrutiny, Binance’s clampdown has been seen by many as a coordinated effort, a position CZ claim he has no idea about.
“No one has told us this is a coordinated effort, so we don’t know,” he told CoinDesk.
Now, CZ says the exchange is striving to pursue being a regulated entity, and all sacrifices to get this done on his part will be made.
“We’re going to pivot to be a fully regulated financial institution going forward,” Zhao told reporters, adding that, during that pivot, he would be “very open” to finding a replacement CEO with more regulatory experience. In addition, he noted that he’d “be honored to continue to run Binance as a regulated financial institution until we find somebody who may do a better job.”
The CEO also pointed out plans in place by the exchange to address the regulators’ concerns about the firm not having a defined headquarters.
“We have a structure that’s relatively hard to understand for regulators. For example, simple things like we don’t have a headquarters,” he told reporters. “So we are now looking to establish multiple headquarters in regional headquarters in different parts of the world. We don’t have specific locations for all of them yet.”
Beyond Changpeng Zhao Potential Exit, Other Ways Binance Is Pacifying Regulators
While the Changpeng Zhao potential exit is one of the defined ways Binance looks to get back on track with regulators, the firm is also doing a lot to pacify watchdogs across the board.
The exchange has unveiled its plans to expunge specific crypto trading pairs with fiat currencies including the Australian Dollar (AUD), Euro (EUR), and the British Pound (GBP). Similarly, the exchange is trailing other exchanges to cut down leverage limit to 20x and the firm is also delisting its security stock tokens.
While the parent company battles its regulatory turmoil, the challenges are not impacting its regulated Binance US arm, a firm that is mulling going public through the Initial Public Offering route.
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