The largest crypto exchange has really struggled in 2023. In February, under pressure from the New York State Department of Financial Services, stablecoin issuer Paxos refused to mint BUSD for Binance. While in June, more than ten top managers quit the company after the SEC filed a lawsuit against the company.

Since June, the following staff have left Binance:

• Senior Director of Investigations Matthew Price
• Global Vice President of Marketing & Communications Steve Milton
• General Counsel Han Ng
• Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Hillmann
• Senior Vice President Stephen Christie
• Head of the Asia-Pacific Region Leon Fung
• Head of Product Mayur Kamat
• Vice President for Eastern Europe, Turkey, CIS, Australia and New Zealand Gleb Kostarev
• Executive Vice President Helen Hai
• US division CEO Brian Schroeder
• Vladimir Smerkis, Director for the CIS
• Jonathan Farnell, Head of Binance UK

At the same time, journalists were preparing the public for the imminent filing of criminal charges against the management and company CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) brought directly by the US Department of Justice for money laundering, financial fraud, helping to circumvent sanctions on Iran and Russia, and aiding and abetting the financing of terrorist organisations.

Regulatory pressure, an exodus of senior executives, and a negative news backdrop have dealt a severe blow to the market position of both the US and global divisions. In the spot market, the former's market share fell over the year from 8% to less than 1% and the latter's from 55% to 34%, respectively.

However, yesterday Bloomberg published information from an anonymous insider claiming that a tentative agreement on a pre-trial settlement has been reached between the Department of Justice and Binance. As part of the settlement, the crypto exchange will agree to pay a record $4bn fine and comply with a number of regulatory conditions. An official statement to this effect could well be issued by the end of November.

Following this news, the BNB crypto exchange coin was up 6% to $260.

Despite its declining market share, Binance remains a major player on the global stage. Therefore, reaching an agreement regulators will provide significant support to the crypto market (and BNB in particular) as it will offset the risk of significant turbulence caused by a drawn-out criminal case. 

StormGain Analytical Group 
(platform for trading, exchanging and storing cryptocurrency)

Register on StormGain Now