As reported earlier, Binance creator and chief executive Changpeng Zhao (widely known to the community as CZ) will resign from his leading role, and Richard Teng, former global head of regional markets, will take over from CZ.
The resignation is part of the deal struck with the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), as well as a $4.3 billion fine to settle the criminal charges of money-laundering violations, letting U.S. VIP clients remain on Binance, while it officially withdrew from the country.
Many notable figures in the crypto space have commented on CZ's move to quit, including his friend Justin Sun, founder of Tron and now owner of Poloniex and Huobi exchanges, the Ripple CTO and others. Now, Ripple's chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty has published a tweet on this as well, as he stressed the importance of Binance's resolution with the DoJ for the whole crypto space.
Here's Alderoty's take on what happened to Binance
The Ripple CLO tweeted that what Binance did was a "necessary step" since it brought the crypto space into compliance with "these important laws and safeguards," meaning financial regulators. He mentioned that in the past, at some point, major banks went through a similar procedure.
What is also important, according to Alderoty, is that the DoJ did not allege that Binance violated any securities laws and did not even suggest that any of the tokens it traded were unregistered securities, unlike the SEC has done this year with Coinbase and Kraken exchanges.
Alderoty added that the U.S. Treasury and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also joined the Department of Justice as it dealt with Binance and the charges. Notably, the SEC did not join them. The Ripple top executive saw a clear message here that the agency – under Gensler – has not only become an outlier globally, but an outlier within its own government.
Comparing the SEC to a "petulant child who can't stand being ignored," Alderoty said that the SEC tweeted about its lawsuit against Kraken at exactly the same time that the DoJ scheduled its conference to deal with Binance.
As for the accusations of the SEC against Kraken about trading "unregistered securities," Alderoty said that "it has no meaning under the law" since the DoJ did not throw this charge at Binance.
"The Courts have been very clear that tokens themselves are not securities," Alderoty stressed in his tweet.
CZ makes important statement after resigning from Binance
CZ posted a tweet to tell the community about his resignation and share what he plans to do once his leading role in Binance is over.
CZ admitted that the decision to quit was not an easy one for him, but he did it to take responsibility for his mistakes. "This is best for our community, for Binance," he believes. As for Binance itself, "Binance is no longer a baby. It is time for me to let it walk and run. I know Binance will continue to grow and excel with the deep bench it has," CZ said.
He then named Richard Teng as the new chief executive, saying that he has xtensive experience of more than 30 years in the financial and regulatory industry. With him, CZ expects, Binance will undergo a new period of growth.
CZ stated that he is a shareholder of Binance, and he will continue to help the company's team as a consultant "consistent with the framework set out in our U.S. agency resolutions."
Quitting Binance, CZ does not plan to begin a new start-up, seeing himself as "an one-shot (lucky) entrepreneur." However, he is willing to become a coach/mentor for a small number of newbie entrepreneurs, privately.
CZ also made an important statement regarding the resolution between Binance and the DoJ. He is leaving the company with the DoJ not alleging that Binance misappropriated user funds and not claiming that Binance was involved with any market manipulation activities.
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
