Binance appointed Justin Yek as its new chief financial officer, replacing Kaiser Ng, who is leaving the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange to pursue a new venture. The announcement came nine days after hackers stole about USD 6.3 billion in cryptocurrency from the platform.
Yek joins Binance from payments firm Airwallex, where he served as vice-president of finance. He will now lead the exchange’s finance function as the company works to contain the fallout from one of the largest digital-asset thefts on record.
Binance said that Ng’s departure was not connected to the hack. Co-CEO Yi He said the leadership transition had been planned over the previous six months, before the security breach occurred.
Ng spent more than five years at Binance and played a central role in its financial operations during a period of rapid global expansion. The company has not disclosed details of his next venture.
The timing, however, is likely to draw scrutiny. A CFO transition so soon after a record-scale cyberattack can create uncertainty among investors, users and regulators, even when the company says the move was pre-planned.
The breach occurred on October 29, when attackers allegedly drained about USD 6.3 billion in crypto assets from Binance. Reports said the attackers gained access months earlier through malware embedded in software downloads and fake recruitment campaigns aimed at engineers.
The incident has intensified pressure on Binance to demonstrate that customer assets remain secure. The company has said it replenished roughly 98% of the affected token assets. It also said it had frozen or intercepted about USD 2.85 billion of the stolen funds as of November 3.
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