Binance has been under strain for months amid an onslaught of regulatory investigations that have severed many of its key banking relationships across the globe. Now, the giant cryptocurrency exchange is in full-on turmoil after top executives resigned this week over CEO Changpeng Zhao’s handling of the investigations.
Fortune has learned that senior figures, including general counsel Hon Ng, chief strategy officer Patrick Hillmann, and SVP for compliance Steven Christie, told Zhao this week they are leaving the company. Their departure follows the recent exit of Matthew Price, a former IRS agent whom Binance hired in 2021 to oversee global investigations and intelligence.
The decision by the executives to quit the company represents a management and strategic crisis for Binance at a time when it is navigating immense regulatory pressure. The situation is also likely to increase that pressure given that the departures are from legal and compliance units that deal most directly with regulators.
Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the departures.
Apologies for any typos, but I was not expecting to be tweeting about this today.
— Patrick Hillmann (@PRHillmann) July 6, 2023
It’s true that I am leaving @Binance, but I’m doing so on good terms. I continue to respect and support @cz_binance and am grateful for having had the incredible opportunity to work under his…
In a message to Fortune following the publication of this story, Zhao said the company promoted a new general counsel a month ago, and that Chief Compliance Officer Noah Perlman is staying on at the company. He added that Hillman’s departure was for personal reasons.
According to a person at Binance familiar with the situation, the executives chose to depart over Zhao’s response to an ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice. Several outlets have reported that the investigation, underway for more than a year, relates to Binance’s alleged attempts to bamboozle U.S. regulators as well as alleged money laundering and sanctions violations on the company’s platform.
Binance is already the subject of serious regulatory lawsuits filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and rumors have swirled that a criminal complaint by the Justice Department against both the company and Zhao are imminent.
The multiple U.S. investigations—along with others in Europe, Australia, and elsewhere—have given rise to rumors that Zhao might step aside as part of an effort to help Binance weather the regulatory storm. In June, Bloomberg published a lengthy profile of Richard Teng, a fast-rising Binance executive with experience, describing him as the “heir apparent” to Zhao as the company mulled succession options.
But so far, Zhao, a nomadic technology genius fluent in both Western and Asian culture, has given no indication he’s prepared to step aside.
Binance remains by far the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, but in recent months its market share has started to slide, likely as a result of the regulatory pressure and on the decision by banks in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere to cut off the company’s access to fiat currency.
This story has been updated to included Zhao’s comments.