- Binance.US has had to let more staff go and its CEO, Brian Shroder, has stepped down
- The offshoot has been hit by legal actions from agencies like the CFTC and SEC and faces a difficult future
- Binance.US said it had to react in order to fund its lawsuits
Binance.US faces a collapse into irrelevance following the decision by the offshoot to reduce its headcount as its CEO, Brian Shroder, steps aside. The Block cites individuals familiar with the firm’s operations as saying that Shroder is no longer associated with the American branch of the exchange. The departure coincides with a period of uncertainty for Binance.US, which was hit with various charges by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in March and looks to be staring down the barrel.
Binance.US Crippled by Bear Marker and Legal Action
Binance.US launched in September 2019 and was established to serve US consumers and adhere to US regulations, which have famously become both vaguer and more restrictive since. Binance.US launched with far fewer tokens than Binance Global due to more stringent (and confusing) US legislation, and recent legal actions by the likes of the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have made the company’s position more untenable by the month.
An already perilous position was made even more so when both agencies sued Binance and Binance.US, which led to Binance.US customers being banned from utilizing US dollars for cryptocurrency purchases on the platform. The company’s monthly trading volumes have experienced a significant decline, dropping from $10.58 billion in January to $70 million this month, according to data from The Block.
Binance.US Laments “Real-world Consequences” of SEC Action
This downturn has led to the company cutting staff numbers and removing certain operations in order to save money for the legal battle ahead. It also seems that Shroder has, unsurprisingly, had enough and has stepped back from his role as the company’s head as new staff cuts hit.
In response to the situation, a spokesperson from Binance.US defended the company’s actions:
The actions we are taking today provide Binance.US with more than seven years of financial runway and enable us to continue to serve our customers while we operate as a crypto-only exchange. The SEC’s aggressive attempts to cripple our industry and the resulting impacts on our business have real-world consequences for American jobs and innovation, and this is an unfortunate example of that.
The end result is that Binance.US has slipped another notch down the relevance pole on its way to what seems an inevitable closure.
