Binance CFO Leaves Week After $6.3 Billion Crypto Hack

Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world, has announced the departure of financial director Kaiser Ng. He is succeeded by Justin Yek, who comes from payment company Airwallex.

The news follows a few days after the biggest crypto hack ever, in which 6.3 billion dollars were stolen. However, according to Binance, preparations for the departure had already begun six months ago.

Kaiser Ng had been Binance's financial director since January 2022. Before that, he worked at crypto exchange Kraken for about five years. According to co-director Yi He, Ng is leaving to focus on a new business project. The transfer of his work would have been initiated six months ago.

Binance thus emphasises that the departure is separate from the cyber attack of 29 October. There are also no indications that Ng was involved in the security incident. The announcement will come while the crypto exchange is still working on repairing the damage of the hack and compensating affected customers.

Justin Yek was previously vice president of finance at Airwallex, an international payments company. At Binance, he will be responsible for the financial strategy and the management of the cash flows. Yek says that it wants to focus on a responsible growth of Binance and the further expansion of the company in the international market.

His appointment follows a period in which Binance had to release billions of dollars to absorb the damage of the hack. The crypto exchange has promised to fully reimburse all affected customers and reported on 3 November that 98 percent of the stolen funds had now been replenished. The company used its own reserves and special emergency funds for this purpose.

The US FBI holds the North Korean hacker group TraderTraitor responsible for the attack.