"Very surprising, the crypto community must have thought that CZ would resign, right?"
The entire cryptocurrency market including Bitcoin (BTC) unfortunately saw a significant plunge when Changpeng Zhao (CZ) reportedly resigned from his position as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Binance.
As part of the settlement of the charges brought by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), CZ, which pleaded guilty to violating US anti-money laundering regulations, has agreed to pay a fine of $4.3 billion.
It is true that the settlement is between the DOJ, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Binance, but it does not involve the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) claiming that the crypto exchange operates as an unregistered security.
Following the resignation, CZ has named Richard Teng who is the former Regional Head of Binance Markets as his successor, but Teng still has many hurdles to overcome in the future to rebuild trust in the crypto exchange.
Although a settlement has been reached and CZ has backed down, the DOJ said it would require Binance to file a suspicious activity report and then submit its records for further investigation.
In addition to having to exit the US market, the settlement also prohibits CZ from any present and future involvement with Binance for at least three years.
Immediately after plunging to $35,654, the price of BTC at the time rebounded at $36,000 but still recorded a 3.65% decline in the past 24 hours while Binance Coin (BNB) tumbled by 10.71% at $228.84.
