New Binance CEO Richard Teng has hinted at the exchange’s ability to pay the $4.3 billion it has been fined by the US Justice Department.
Teng, who was named CEO of Binance on Tuesday after Changpeng Zhao stepped down, said in a recent post on X (formerly Twitter) that the exchange is in good shape financially.
“The fundamentals of our business are VERY strong,” he wrote.
“Binance continues to operate the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume, our capital structure is debt-free, expenses are modest, and, despite the low fees we charge our users, we have robust revenues and profits.”
The statement came in reply to a post by Connor Lango, director of business development at Coinbase, who said Binance will most likely be able to “pay full $4.3B DoJ fine with 0 crypto asset sales.”
Lango detailed that after pulling out Binance’s crypto holdings from their Proof of Reserves, he discovered that the exchange still had $6.35 billion in total assets and $3.19 billion in stablecoins.
The fundamentals of our business are VERY strong.
Binance continues to operate the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume, our capital structure is debt-free, expenses are modest, and, despite the low fees we charge our users, we have robust revenues and profits. https://t.co/PHq2YS0CP5
— Richard Teng (@_RichardTeng) November 22, 2023
Binance Sees $900 Million in Outflows
The assurance from the new CEO comes as Binance has already seen more than $900 million in outflows over the past 24 hours.
As reported, data from DeFi TVL aggregator DefiLlama show that Binance has registered $913 million in outflows over the past day, with $605 million in net outflows over the past week.
The exchange still has net inflows of $1.78 billion over the past month, the largest by far among all centralized crypto exchanges tracked by DefiLlama.
The outflows came after Binance, along with its CEO Changpeng Zhao, pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to anti-money laundering and violations of US sanctions on Tuesday.
The plea was made as part of a comprehensive agreement reached with the US Department of Justice, allowing the company to continue its operations.
Under the terms of the settlement, Changpeng Zhao will also personally pay $200 million in fines.
He also appeared in court in Seattle to enter his guilty plea and now faces a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.
Teng Was Expected to Succeed CZ
Back in June, Bloomberg reported that Binance’s regulatory hurdles have opened up the path for a potential successor to CZ, with Richard Teng being among the frontrunners for the position.
Teng’s resume includes senior positions at Singapore’s central bank and Abu Dhabi’s international free-trade zone, making him an ideal candidate to help steer Binance through the current regulatory hurricane.
One of Teng’s first tasks at Binance was to help secure a crypto license in Singapore, at the time one of the most coveted seals of approval in crypto.
The application failed reportedly because Binance’s affiliate didn’t meet the criteria for protecting against money laundering and terrorist financing.
However, the setback didn’t appear to hurt Teng’s prospects at Binance, and he was later promoted to head of the Middle East and North Africa, followed by an oversight of Europe and Asia.
Teng’s rise has seen him join an inner circle of Zhao confidants that includes He Yi, Binance’s other co-founder, with whom Zhao has two children.
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