The dust has settled. On November 22, Binance founder Zhao Changpeng announced his resignation as CEO, "I made a mistake and I must take responsibility." At the same time, Richard Teng will take over as Binance CEO.

This is not surprising.

In June this year, Bloomberg published an article titled "Binance's regulatory woes pave the way for CZ's successor", predicting that if CZ resigns due to regulatory difficulties, Richard Teng will likely become the next Binance CEO.

The market is often one step ahead. As early as 1 a.m. on November 22, before the U.S. Department of Justice officially announced the news, a MEME token named Richard Teng appeared on Uniswap.

For most people, the name Richard Teng is quite unfamiliar. In fact, he is not an old Binance employee. According to his profile on Linkedin, Richard Teng joined Binance in 2021. It has only been 2 years and 4 months, and he has experienced 5 consecutive jumps.

Richard Teng initially served as the CEO of Binance's Singapore subsidiary, and was then promoted to Head of Binance's Middle East and North Africa in December 2021. In November 2022, he was appointed to oversee European affairs (Head of Europe, Middle East and North Africa). In April 2023, he was appointed to oversee Asian affairs (Head of Asia, Europe, Middle East and North Africa), and in May 2023, he was responsible for markets in all regions outside the United States.

One of the important time points was November 2022, after which Teng's position was rapidly promoted.

November 2022 was the time when FTX collapsed. The bankruptcy of FTX had a huge impact on the cryptocurrency industry. It not only caused losses to investors, but also reminded key institutions in various countries to re-examine the crypto industry and tend to regulate the crypto industry more strictly.

After the collapse of FTX, Binance, as the world's largest centralized exchange, has to face the greatest regulatory pressure.

So, since then, we have been seeing news about various regulatory agencies superimposed on Binance.

In February 2023, the BUSD issuer stated that it would stop minting and issuing BUSD at the request of the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), a regulator in the United States.

In March, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that it had filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleging multiple violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations against Changpeng Zhao and three entities.

In April, officials from Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) asked Binance to provide more information about its ownership structure, governance, and audit procedures.

In May, Binance announced that it would proactively withdraw from the Canadian market and no longer provide services to Canadian users due to changes in regulatory policies.

In June, the U.S. SEC sued Binance and Zhao Changpeng, filing 13 charges, including operating an unregistered exchange, broker-dealer, and clearing agency.

……

In this tough regulatory environment, Richard Teng was promoted quickly because he was good at dealing with regulators in various countries.

Looking through Richard Teng’s previous resume, he has a Chinese Singaporean background, worked at the Wharton School, worked at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and graduated from the Abu Dhabi International Market... Teng has many attractive labels.

Richard Teng studied for his undergraduate degree at Nanyang Polytechnic in Singapore from 1991 to 1994. After graduating from university in 1994, he joined the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and stayed there for 13 years until 2007. During his tenure, he took the lead in formulating and administering the Securities and Futures Act, and also managed Singapore's takeover and merger regulations and supervised Singapore's takeover and merger transactions.

While working at MAS in Singapore, Richard Teng also studied at two universities overseas, namely the University of Western Australia and the world-renowned business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

In 2007, Richard Teng left MAS and joined the Singapore Exchange (SGX), where he stayed for 7 years and 6 months, rising through the ranks to become Chief Compliance Officer, working closely with Singapore MAS to maintain a fair, orderly and transparent market.

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In March 2015, Richard Teng joined Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and served as CEO for 6 years, during which time ADGM was named "the best international financial company in the Middle East and North Africa" ​​for four consecutive times.

Later, he joined Binance in 2021. Overall, Richard Teng has an excellent resume, especially he has more than 20 years of experience in government-related agencies, as a maker and executor of regulatory laws and regulations. This experience may help Binance overcome the challenges it faces in terms of regulation.

In a Twitter Space, CZ mentioned that Richard Teng was introduced by an employee of the Central Bank of Singapore, and he decided to officially take the position two weeks after talking with Richard Teng.

Binance co-founder He Yi also recognized Richard Teng in an interview before, "I think he is an experienced professional manager. Since he joined Binance, his scope has been continuously expanding. We all like and recognize Richard."

Richard Teng reminds me of another senior executive of a large company, TikTok CEO Zhou Shouzi, who is also Singaporean, graduated from a prestigious university and has a financial background. TikTok is also facing regulatory pressure from the United States and other countries. Compared with a Chinese, a Singaporean is more suitable to deal with it, and it will also help to better manage a national team.

After taking over as Binance CEO, Richard Teng posted on social media that his future work focus is:

(1) To ensure that users have confidence in the company’s financial strength and security;

(2) working with regulators to maintain high standards of compliance around the world and promote innovation while providing important consumer protections;

(3) Work with partners to drive the development and adoption of Web3.

Let's wait and see what the new Binance will look like under the leadership of Richard Teng.