Christopher Robins, general counsel of Binance.US, has stepped down after just seven months in the position, CoinDesk reported. He will remain with the company at a part-time position. A Binance spokesperson said:
Chris has been one of the driving forces in assembling our leading legal team, and we are grateful for his past and continuing efforts on behalf of Binance.US and our customers.
In recent months, the biggest crypto exchange in the world by trading volume has faced regulatory hurdles across the globe, forcing it in the direction of stronger compliance. Regulatory issues have appeared in a number of jurisdictions, including the U.K. and Japan. The company has taken respective measures. This week, Binance reduced its customer withdrawal limit from 2 Bitcoins to 0.06 Bitcoins.
Ripple lawyer to replace Robins
In addition, Binance seems to be having staffing issues. Former CEO of Binance.US Brian Brooks also quit – after just four months on the job. On an interim basis, the role of general counsel at Binance will be filled by Norman Reed, formerly the top lawyer at Ripple. He has held a position with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the past.
Is CZ leaving too?
Binance is also looking for someone to replace Changpeng Zhao, its famous leader. This person needs to have a strong regulatory background. Zhao has said there is no timeline for his replacement. He will not be leaving right away. He said he would always contribute to Binance and the Binance Coin (BNB) ecosystem and didn’t need to be CEO to do that, adding:
We have a structure that’s relatively hard to understand for regulators. For example, simple things like we don’t have a headquarters. 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.
Zhao went to great lengths to explain that he would be honored to run Binance as a regulated financial institution. He says he will step down when a better candidate for CEO is found because he does not want his act to be seen as a reaction to the ongoing regulatory issues.
From startup to institution
According to Zhou, Binance is transforming from a ‘tech startup to a financial institution’ as part of its plan to address watchdog scrutiny. This will involve creating a structure regulators can recognize more easily.
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