Binance.US, the American counterpart of Binance, recently laid off approximately 50 employees from its legal, compliance, and risk departments.
This decision comes from regulatory accusations of securities law violations against the company. According to sources and employee social media posts, Binance.US has initiated a series of staff reductions.
The allegations have also led to a request to freeze the company’s assets. One source claims that Binance.US let go of 50 staff members, although Reuters has not confirmed the exact number of affected roles.
The layoffs primarily impacted Binance.US’s legal, compliance, and risk teams. On June 14, two employees of Binance US announced on LinkedIn that they were leaving the company, with one attributing their departure to the recent round of layoffs.
Earlier, there were rumors in May that Binance might have to lay off 20% of its workforce in June. However, CEO Changpeng Zhao dismissed these speculations, stating that while the company does have a policy for terminating undesirable employees, they have no plans to disclose the specific number of individuals affected.
Zhao also mentioned that Binance continues to hire new employees. Binance has faced legal issues related to its operations.
Binance’s legal issues
On June 5, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao. They claimed that Binance.US was established as part of a “deception network” to evade securities laws protecting US investors.
Binance has firmly stated its intention to dispute these allegations. Additionally, the SEC has sued BAM Trading, the operating business for Binance.US, for allegedly misleading investors about the lack of trading safeguards on its platform.
The SEC requested the freezing of Binance.US’s assets, including over $2.2 billion in cryptocurrencies and approximately $377 million in US dollar bank accounts, just one day after filing the accusations.
The SEC expressed concerns that the exchange might move these funds elsewhere. Binance US rejected the request as “unjustified” and deemed the SEC’s charges “unfounded.”
