Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Like almost everything in finance, Crypto has fallen victim to high interest rates that were put in place by the Federal Reserve to fight inflation. The once ultra-profitable and popular Bitcoin has lost over 60% of its value in 2022.
It’s been a tough year for cryptocurrency overall, and Binance.US has not been exempt from these pressures. First, the Security and Exchange Commission sued Binance.US this past summer for allegedly violating security laws and, allegedly offering unregistered crypto derivative products and directing U.S. customers to use a VPN in order to evade compliance controls. And while the company took the necessary steps to prevent an asset freeze, the investigation which is ongoing, still greatly affected the company. Binance is also being investigated by the Justice Department.
As a result, Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder has stepped down as CEO, but not before laying off ? of his workforce. Prior to his departure, Brian Shroder was at the helm of the largest crypto exchange in the world.
This represents the firm’s second round of layoffs since it was charged with several securities violations in June by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Norman Reed, Binance.US’s chief legal officer and general counsel, will step in as interim CEO.
Regarding layoffs, a Binance.US spokesperson told Bloomberg on Tuesday that such actions “provide Binance.US with more than seven years of financial runway and enable us to continue to serve our customers while we operate as a crypto-only exchange.”
Binance released the following statement; “The actions we are taking today provide Binance.US with more than seven years of financial runway and enable us to continue to serve our customers while we operate as a crypto-only exchange,” the company said in a statement. “The SEC’s aggressive attempts to cripple our industry and the resulting impacts on our business have real-world consequences for American jobs and innovation, and this is an unfortunate example of that.”
However, with the extent of their legal wrongdoing still being investigated, Binance might not be the victim of the SEC that they are painting themselves out to be. Furthermore, if the largest cryptocurrency company in the world cannot keep it together, what does that mean for the future of Crypto?
