“Kaiser Ng has decided to pursue a new venture after more than five years at Binance, with a transition plan implemented over the last six months,” Binance co-CEO Yi He said in a statement, per a Saturday (Nov. 7) Bloomberg News report.
“We wish him the best in his next chapter,” she said, adding that Justin Yek will become the company’s new finance chief.
The news comes days after hackers stole $6.3 billion from Binance in what has been called the largest heist in crypto history. The incident comes as other crypto exchanges have faced serious security incidents, like last year’s $1.5 billion hack of the ByBit exchange.
As Bloomberg noted, the FBI has said North Korea was responsible for the Binance attack. The company has since said it had covered about 90% of the $6.3 billion, making progress on its effort to fully reimburse users.
“But while Binance users are being protected from their immediate losses, the underlying criminal proceeds and the infrastructure enabling their movement remain relatively untouched and their recovery uncertain,” PYMNTS wrote last week.
As each day goes by, digital asset infrastructure is shifting closer to the traditional financial system, that report said, noting that Kraken was approved for and holds a limited purpose account with access to the U.S. Federal Reserve System.
“Small exchanges cannot necessarily replicate Binance’s financial response. Reimbursement does little to address the potential downstream consequences of stolen assets moving through the financial system,” the report added.
“The harder questions concern who can intervene when something goes wrong, who bears the losses, and whether the infrastructure provides meaningful mechanisms for enforcing the law.”
Ng’s LinkedIn profile shows him joining Binance in 2022 following a five-year stint with rival crypto exchange Kraken.
Yek is a veteran of companies including Citi, Morgan Stanley and most recently payments platform Airwallex, where he served as vice president of finance.
“I am thrilled to step into the role of CFO at Binance,” Yek said in the statement. “I look forward to leading our finance organization as we continue to scale responsibly and deliver on our mission globally.”
