Binance.US CEO Resigns, Leaves Crypto Community Confused

FRIDAY: Binance.US CEO of just four months, Brian Brooks announced that he will be stepping down from his position. Inevitably, the move was greeted with confusion and suspicion from the crypto community.

Reassuring customers that Brooks stepping down will not impact them in any way, Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance (a separate entity from Binance.US) shared his thoughts. He noted:

I remain confident in Binance.US’s business and its commitment to serve its customers and innovate […] As one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States, Binance.US is poised to continue to grow and empower the future of finance.

However, the reassurance didn’t do much to quell fears that perhaps Brooks’ decision was based on issues Binance has been facing recently. Being the CEO, he may have made his choice because of internal knowledge of problems the company has.

Some also speculated that Brooks is leaving Binance in light of the regulatory crackdown faced by the company recently. This may have prompted the exchange to cut down operations in certain regions. For instance, regulators in Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada have recently issued warnings against Binance citing various reasons.

United States is no exception. The Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service also investigated the top exchange for alleged illegal trading activity. In fact, the exchange is also the focus of an investigation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission regarding alleged trades by US customers.

Finally, one reason referred to by the former CEO himself may very well be the real cause of the resignation. As said in his tweet, “differences over strategic direction” may have driven him to make the decision. Along with this, Brooks earlier talked about an “inevitable clash of direction” with the board of directors at Binance.US.

All in all, the crypto community declared the resignation a strange happening and is following updates eagerly. We’ll just have to wait and see what’s up for Binance next.