Investors pulled about $956 million from crypto exchange Binance over the past 24 hours, market data showed, after its chief, Changpeng Zhao, stepped down and faced prison time after pleading guilty on Tuesday to settle a years-long U.S. illicit finance probe.
The deal, in which Binance will pay $4.3 billion to U.S. authorities, raises questions over the future of the world’s largest crypto exchange and marks another blow for an industry beset by scandals. Zhao has been replaced by Richard Teng, a senior Binance executive who joined in 2021, the company said.
It remained unclear on Wednesday how much jail time, if any, Zhao would ultimately serve, and how much influence he – as Binance’s founder and major shareholder – could continue to exert on Binance under the terms of the settlement.
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