Adrian Zduńczyk, founder and CEO of the blockchain startup The Birb Nest, stated in a social post on X (formerly known as Twitter) that Binance's inflows and on-chain assets are evidence of continued trust from crypto users worldwide. He noted that the world's largest crypto exchange is demonstrating financial strength and resilience under its new leadership. Binance reached a settlement with the U.S. government in November, resolving historical compliance issues.
Zduńczyk cited statistics from DefiLlama, a decentralized finance data aggregator. According to DefiLlama, in the week leading up to Dec. 8, Binance received approximately $1.5 billion in inflows. This figure "dwarfs the combined total of the next 30 largest exchanges," as per a post on X. Zduńczyk also mentioned that Binance has $74 billion in visible on-chain assets, while its closest competitor has $13 billion. He interpreted these figures as an indication that "users are voting with their wallets, attracted by Binance's robust compliance" under the leadership of the exchange’s new CEO, Richard Teng.
Mason Versluis, founder of Paytience Indicators and host of The Gold Pod podcast, echoed Zduńczyk's sentiments using DefiLlama’s data on Binance in a post on X. Versluis said that Binance’s inflows are significantly higher than those of "the next 30 largest exchanges combined," many of which have declined over the same period.
On Nov. 21, the Department of Justice announced a settlement with Binance. According to a press release, the company agreed to pay $4.3 billion in penalties and will allow a third-party monitor to access its transactions and accounts.
In a Nov. 21 post about the settlement, Binance acknowledged its responsibility for historical, criminal compliance violations. The company expressed its readiness to move forward from this "challenging yet transformative chapter of learning and growth." Binance admitted that it grew quickly in an evolving industry and made some "misguided decisions" along the way.
As part of the settlement, Binance announced that co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) would be replaced as CEO by Richard Teng, the company’s former Global Head of Regional Markets.
In his first blog post as CEO, Teng stated that Binance has spent the last two years rectifying historical compliance issues by recruiting and retaining "the right personnel to strengthen Binance’s compliance program and culture." He expressed optimism about leading Binance into the future.
Before joining Binance in Aug. 2021, Teng held several positions, including CEO of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority at Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), chief regulatory officer of the Singapore Exchange (SGX), and director of corporate finance at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, according to Binance’s website.