Binance's finance chief steps down nine days after record hack
Why it matters
If your firm has exposure to Binance, add this to your checks: the exchange is changing its top finance officer while still rebuilding after the largest crypto theft on record.
Post to XThe short version
Binance's chief financial officer, Kaiser Ng, is stepping down, co-chief executive Yi He said on 7 November. He will be replaced by Justin Yek, who comes from payments company Airwallex. The news came nine days after hackers stole more than $6 billion from Binance, the crypto trading platform.
Here's what happened. Kaiser Ng, Binance's chief financial officer since January 2022, is leaving after more than five years at the company to start a new venture, co-CEO Yi He said on Saturday. His replacement is Justin Yek, most recently vice president of finance at payments firm Airwallex, The Block reported.
Yi He said the handover had been planned over the past six months. The statement did not say when Ng leaves or what he will do next.
The timing is hard to ignore. On 29 October attackers drained more than $6bn from Binance across several blockchains, which The Block calls the largest crypto theft on record. The FBI has blamed TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking group.
Binance had refilled about 95% of the affected assets with its own money by 2 November, when it published a check of its reserves and began reopening withdrawals. Since then, the hackers have swapped some stolen tokens for $124m in bitcoin, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.
Where this comes from
Written with AI from the sources above and checked against them before publishing. Here's how we work. This is news, not financial advice. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.