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Patrick Hillmann, Binance’s chief strategy officer, confirmed via a tweet that he will be leaving the cryptocurrency exchange, parting ways for good after two years in office. His announcement joins the recent exits of other top compliance officers at Binance:
Sorry for any typos, but I wasn’t expecting to tweet about this today.
It is true that I will go @Binance, but I did that on good terms. I continue to respect and support @cz_binance and I am grateful to have had the unique opportunity to work under his…
– Patrick Hillman (@PRHillman) July 6, 2023
Hillmann ended the tweet with: “Blockchain and crypto are here to stay and I’m excited to see them explode in the coming years.”
Following this news, reports emerged about the departure of two more senior compliance executives, Han Ng, the General Counsel, and Steven Christie, the Senior Vice President for Compliance, according to a report from of Fortune.
CEO Changpeng Zhao took to Twitter to dismiss media narratives surrounding the high-profile exits, labeling them as unfounded fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD):
4. More FUD about some departures. Yes, there is turnover (in every company). But the reasons dreamed up by the “news” are completely wrong.
As an organization that grew from 30 to 8000 people in 6 years, from 0 to the largest crypto exchange in the world in less than 5 months…
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) July 6, 2023
“As the markets and the global environment for crypto changes, as our organization evolves, and as personal situations change, there is turnover in every company.”
Following these departures, replacements were announced. Eleanor Hughes, Binance’s former Head of Legal for the APAC and MENA regions, is set to become the new General Counsel, stepping into Ng’s shoes. Noah Perlamn, who was appointed as Chief Compliance Officer earlier this year, is set to stay on, according to a source who told Bloomberg.
Binance’s leadership reshuffle comes as the exchange finds itself under legal and regulatory scrutiny. Binance is facing charges from the SEC and the CFTC. The SEC accused the exchange of offering unregistered securities, misappropriation of customer funds and various counts of fraud. The CFTC, on the other hand, said that Binance failed to register properly to offer trading services in commodities.
