Bloomberg reported on June 5, 2023 that if Changpeng Zhao resigns due to regulatory difficulties, Richard Teng will become the next CEO of Binance.
Half a year later, on November 22, 2023, after the sky-high settlement between the U.S. SEC and Binance, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao announced his resignation as Binance CEO in a post on the X platform. Binance Global Regional Market Director Richard Teng was officially dismissed. Appointed as Binance’s new CEO.
Bloomberg news became a far-reaching prophecy.
Who is Richard Teng? Why did he become Zhao Changpeng's "successor"?
Who is Richard Teng?
According to Linkedin, Richard Teng is 52 years old and a Singaporean. He studied at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore from 1991 to 1994. After college in 1994, he became a civil servant in Singapore and worked for the Monetary Authority of Singapore, MAS, rising to the position of Director of the Corporate Finance Department of MAS.
While working at MAS in Singapore, Richard Teng continued to recharge his batteries. He graduated with a master's degree from the University of Western Australia in 1998 and from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a world-renowned business school, in 2004.
In 2007, Richard Teng left Singapore's MAS and moved to the Singapore Exchange (SGX), where he successively served as senior vice president, head of issuer supervision and chief compliance officer.
In March 2015, Richard Teng joined Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) as CEO. According to ADGM, after Richard Teng became CEO, ADGM gained recognition from global regulators and industry bodies. For example, ADGM won the "Best International Financial Company in the Middle East and North Africa" four consecutive times from the global investor publication Euromoney. Awards.
Richard Teng left ADGM in March 2021, joined Binance in August 2021, and served as CEO of Binance Singapore. In November 2023, he officially became Changpeng Zhao's successor.
Richard Teng rises quickly at Binance
According to Richard Teng's personal Linkedin, he was promoted rapidly after joining Binance in 2021, especially after November 2022.
November 2022 is the time when FTX declared bankruptcy after being blocked by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.
As we all know, the collapse of FTX has brought a huge impact to the cryptocurrency industry, especially the re-examination of the encryption industry by institutional investors and regulators.
Before November 2022, Richard Teng was responsible for the Middle East and North Africa market for nearly 11 months. After November 2022, Richard Teng was rapidly promoted at Binance, from being responsible for the European and Middle East and North Africa markets, to being responsible for the Asia, Europe and Middle East and North Africa markets, to leading all regional markets outside the United States on May 29, 2023. The latest appointment, Richard Teng, will complete all this within 6 months.
What happened to Binance this year?
After the collapse of a series of encryption institutions in 2022, especially the collapse of FTX, global regulatory agencies have changed their attitude towards the encryption industry and tended to strictly regulate the encryption industry.
As the world’s largest centralized exchange, the regulatory pressure Binance faces is self-evident.
In the past year, Binance and Changpeng Zhao have been facing increasing regulatory pressure from regulatory agencies in various countries, such as regulatory agencies in the United States, Canada, Australia, Dubai and other places.
In February 2023, BUSD issuer Paxos stated that at the request of the regulatory agency New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), it would stop minting and issuing BUSD from February 21.
On March 27, 2023, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced the filing of a civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, accusing Changpeng Zhao and the three entities operating the Binance platform of multiple violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations.
Dubai, which has always been friendly to the crypto community, is also stepping up scrutiny of cryptocurrency license applicants, requiring applicants such as Binance to provide more information. In April 2023, Bloomberg quoted sources as saying that officials from the Dubai Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) have asked Binance in recent weeks to provide more information about its ownership structure, governance and audit procedures.
On May 13, 2023, Binance announced that due to changes in regulatory policies, it would no longer provide services to Canadian users and proactively launch the Canadian market.
On May 18, 2023, Binance Australia tweeted that the Australian dollar service has been suspended due to the local payment service provider stopping support. Binance users in Australia can no longer make Australian dollar deposits and withdrawals through bank transfers. . Binance has stopped all Australian dollar trading pairs starting June 1.
On June 5, 2023, the U.S. SEC sued Binance and Changpeng Zhao and filed 13 charges against Binance and Changpeng Zhao, including operating unregistered exchanges, broker-dealers, and clearing agencies; misrepresenting transaction controls on the Binance.US platform and supervision; unregistered securities issuance and sales, etc.
On November 22, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice reached a sky-high settlement agreement with Binance. Binance’s total fine reached $4.316 billion, including $3.4 billion from the U.S. Department of the Treasury FINCEN (Financial Crime Enforcement Agency) and OFAC (Foreign Assets Office of Control) of $968 million.
Conclusion
Let’s take a look at Richard Teng’s dazzling resume. Singaporean, Chinese, Wharton, elite school background, MAS origin in Singapore, and recognized by global regulatory agencies, Richard Teng combines these labels.
Or this is why Changpeng Zhao chose Richard Teng.
