Bitcoin remained steady after Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was set to step down, while the company pays a $4.3 billion fine.
BTCUSD – Daily Chart
BTC traded at $36,513 after the news, and traders should be careful buying at this level after the recent news.
According to data firm Nansen, Investors have pulled around $956 million from crypto exchange Binance over the past 24 hours. The company’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao, stepped down and pleaded guilty to a DOJ case on US anti-money laundering laws.
The deal will see Binance pay $4.3 billion to US regulators and will settle a long-running probe into the world’s largest crypto exchange. Zhao has been replaced by Richard Teng, a senior Binance executive who joined in 2021.
The news is another setback for the crypto industry but one which insiders expected.
Zhao admitted to making mistakes in accepting illicit funds from groups linked to terrorist organizations and cyber attacks.
According to Nansen, the company is still healthy, with well over $65 billion of assets on the platform, but investors will keep an eye on the price of the BNB native token and further outflows.
“Binance has seen significant exchange outflows since the announcement, but relative to their total holdings, it’s quite small,” Nansen said. Investors pulled around $1.43 billion from the crypto exchange in June after the US Securities and Exchange Commission sued the company and a US subsidiary.
Zhao, residing in Dubai, entered a plea deal in a Seattle court, agreed to pay a $50 million fine, and faces a maximum prison sentence of 18 months under federal guidance. Under his plea deal, he has decided not to appeal any ruling up to that length.
Investors were unphased by the ruling and are likely looking ahead to the incoming efforts of BlackRock and other Wall Street firms in the cryptocurrency industry. With the long-running case finished, Binance can also move forward without the legal threat hanging over the business. The latest drama comes only weeks after fellow exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried faced jail for the collapse of his FTX exchange.
