Several executives at crypto exchange Binance have recently left the company, mostly citing personal reasons, as regulatory pressure facing the company intensifies.
Patrick Hillmann, Binance’s chief strategy officer, tweeted Thursday that he was leaving the company “on good terms.” Steven Christie, a compliance officer who joined Binance last year, also said on Twitter he is leaving the company for personal reasons.
The company’s general counsel Han Ng has also exited the role, according to a report by Fortune citing anonymous sources.
The departures have happened after the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in May sued Binance for alleged violations of commodity trading laws, and the SEC charged Binance in June with 13 securities law violations, alleging that the company mishandled customer funds and illegally served U.S. investors.
Binance has called such actions “disappointing” and said “all user assets on Binance and Binance affiliate platforms, including Binance.US, are safe and secure” .
Changpeng Zhao, chief executive at Binance, also tried to defend the company as the executives leave.
“Yes, there is turnover (at every company). But the reasons dreamed up by the ‘news’ are completely wrong,” Zhao tweeted on Thursday.
“As an organization that has grown from 30 to 8000 people in 6 years, from 0 to the world’s largest crypto exchange in less than 5 months from founding (and HELD ON to that position ever since), we have been able to protect our users at all times and we have been extremely lucky to have some of the best talent the planet has to offer,” Zhao said.
Representatives at Binance didn’t respond to a request seeking comment.
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