The U.S. affiliate of Binance, a crypto giant, has experienced a round of layoffs since the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged it with violating securities laws and attempted to freeze its assets, according to two sources and employees’ social media posts.
The sources said around 50 people were dismissed, although Reuters was unable to verify this number or the seniority of the affected employees. Binance.US’s legal, compliance, and risk departments were among those laid off.
The SEC accused Binance and its founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao of creating Binance.US as part of a “web of deception” to evade securities laws. Binance responded by saying it would defend itself “vigorously”. The SEC also sued Binance.US’s operating company, BAM Trading, alleging that it misled investors about “non-existent trading” controls.
In response to the SEC’s request to freeze Binance.US’s assets, including more than $2.2 billion held in crypto and some $377 million in U.S. dollar bank accounts, Binance.US called the request “unwarranted” and said the SEC’s allegations were “unjustified.”
Two Binance.US employees posted on LinkedIn on Wednesday that they were leaving the company, one citing a “round of layoffs”.
Reporting by Angus Berwick and Tom Wilson; edited by Elisa Martinuzzi and Richard Chang. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Angus Berwick is an award-winning investigative reporter based in London, focused on financial enterprise journalism. He was previously a correspondent in Spain and Venezuela, where he reported on the Maduro government’s efforts to retain power. He was Reuters’ Reporter of the Year in 2019 and has won two Overseas Press Club awards.
Tom Wilson covers crypto companies, regulation, and markets from London. He has worked at Reuters since 2014, with a previous posting to Tokyo where he uncovered abuses in Japan’s immigration system and won a joint Overseas Press Club award for reporting on the tobacco giant Philip Morris.
