Binance's chief financial officer, Kaiser Ng, is stepping down after more than five years at the crypto exchange, to pursue a new venture. He'll be replaced by Justin Yek, who was most recently vice president of finance at payments company Airwallex. Ng has been CFO since January 2022, and before that worked at rival exchange Kraken, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Why the timing raised eyebrows
The announcement came on Saturday, just nine days after hackers stole $6.3 billion from Binance on 29 October, the largest crypto theft on record. Binance and the FBI have blamed a North Korean group called TraderTraitor. The exchange froze withdrawals for several days, and once accounts were unfrozen, users withdrew a net $3.6 billion in the first few hours. Binance has said it will carry the losses itself, and by 2 November it had replenished about 95% of the affected assets with its own funds. So a finance chief leaving so soon after raised questions about whether his departure was linked to the attack.
What Binance says about the handover
However, Binance's co-CEO, Yi He, says a transition plan had already been in place for the past six months, long before the hack. That's Binance's own account of the timing, and its statement didn't say when Ng's departure takes effect or what his new venture is. So while the timing looks awkward, by Binance's account this was a planned exit rather than fallout from the hack.
