Wired interviews with Binance CEO: Binance’s most important job is compliance, and the Trump administration will help encrypt crypto regulations

Original title: "Binance Moved Fast, Broke Things-and Paid the Price.Richard Teng Is Cleaning Up"

Written by: Joel Khalili, Wired

Compiled: Ismay, BlockBeats

Richard Teng doesn't want to be compared with former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. He said he had to go his own way, not fill in others' vacancy.

In November 2023, Teng took over as Binance CEO after Zhao Changpeng (called CZ in the industry). CZ confessed to violating anti-money laundering regulations and U.S. sanctions, a plea that was part of a comprehensive settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, ending years of speculation about potential criminal offenses in Binance. CZ was subsequently sentenced to four months of federal prison and has finished serving his sentence.

Founded by Binance in 2017, CZ is a legend in the crypto industry and is known for her extremely confident speech and active style on social media. Teng, on the other hand, has a gentle personality, easy-going attitude to others, and has a relaxing smile. According to a person familiar with the matter, he was highly recognized by Binance employees when he took office.

Teng, who worked as a regulatory official in Singapore and the UAE, is now working to transform Binance from a "challenger" who circumvents rules, opaque corporate structure, and has no global headquarters to a more transparent and compliant business. He said Binance currently receives more regulatory licenses than any competitor in several countries around the world. In March this year, Binance established its first board of directors, with members mainly composed of company executives.

Under Teng's leadership, the strong growth of the crypto market has also boosted the development of Binance, with its user size growing from about 170 million to around 240 million. Teng said nearly 30% of these users were registered in 2024. Despite legal disputes with the U.S. Department of Justice, Binance remains firmly on the throne of the world's largest crypto trading platform.

However, despite Teng's planning a new route for Binance, the impact of CZ remains lingering. Under a settlement agreement with the Justice Department, CZ cannot directly manage Binance, but at the end of January this year he joined the venture capital firm Binance Labs as an advisor, which has recently been renamed YZi Labs.

YZi Labs chief Ella Zhang insists that since its inception in 2018, the agency has been operating independent from Binance, unlike some reports claiming. But she also said the institution's funding "mainly comes from the personal assets of the founder of Binance." Meanwhile, as Binance’s largest shareholder, CZ still has influence on the company’s major decisions, which may limit Teng’s space in the direction of reform.

In January, Teng was interviewed by WIRED during a meeting in CfC St. Moritz in Switzerland. The following is a sorted interview content to ensure conciseness and clarity.

WIRED: CZ has served his sentence and he remains Binance 's largest shareholder. Have you kept in touch with him regularly? What will his role in Binance be like in the future?

Richard Teng: Both my senior management team and I report to the board, and CZ is not on the board, and I don’t keep regular communication with him.

However, he is Binance's largest shareholder and still has shareholder rights. Even for large listed companies around the world, shareholders have the right to vote to decide the company's development direction.

WIRED: But when the founder of the company—a person who is almost equal to Binance—is still the biggest shareholder, do you think it will be difficult to push Binance into a whole new era?

Richard Teng: Our goal is to build a world-leading and sustainable platform. In this regard, I work closely with the senior management team and the board of directors.

WIRED: How do you want the outside world to view the difference between the CZ era and the Richard Teng era?

Richard Teng: CZ founded Binance in 2017, and the industry environment was completely different at that time - institutions have not yet entered this field, and there are almost no relevant regulations and regulatory requirements in the market. The environment at that time was very different from that now.

After I took over, we must adapt the company to the new industry environment -this environment requires higher compliance, and the regulatory system is gradually becoming clear, although there are still problems of inconsistency and insufficient coordination among the jurisdictions.

We have invested a lot of resources in the compliance system. At present, Binance has become one of the most well-regulated trading platforms in the world, and has obtained regulatory licenses from 21 different countries or regions. This is our future development direction.

WIRED: What specific measures have you taken to make sure Binance doesn’t repeat the same mistakes and avoid the problems that have caused CZ’s sentence to recur?

Richard Teng: Last year, we held nearly 100 training courses and workshops for law enforcement agencies around the world, covering investigative technologies. Cryptotech is traceable by nature, and we want to emphasize how this feature is used to deter, detect and prevent criminals from behaving.

We hope to work closely with global competitors and law enforcement agencies to ensure sustainable development of the industry and jointly curb illegal financial crimes.

WIRED: Under the settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, Binance needs to be regulated by external agencies. From a practical perspective, what does this mean?

Richard Teng: We currently have two external regulatory teams: one designated by the U.S. Department of Justice and the other designated by the Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN). We work closely with both teams.

Our goal is consistent – ​​to ensure continuous investment and strengthen our compliance system. If we have any undetected blind spots, the compliance regulatory team will help. They review our compliance process, require data, and make recommendations for areas where improvement is needed.

To me, this is very valuable. This is not just about our self-recognition, but is verified through an independent external perspective that we are indeed moving in the right direction.

WIRED: In the past, Binance has positioned itself as a global company without a headquarters. How has this changed under your leadership?

Richard Teng: This is a very concerning issue. With Binance being regulated globally, the two most basic requirements for regulators are to establish a board of directors—we have appointed relevant members—and establish a global headquarters.

We are having an in-depth discussion about the location of the global headquarters, which itself is a complex decision-making process that requires consideration of multiple factors, such as whether we can establish talent bases in the country, whether the country's regulatory framework is appropriate, etc. Currently, we are in-depth communication with multiple jurisdictions.

WIRED: What is Binance’s strategy in the United States after the new Trump administration came to power?

Richard Teng: The US market is not our focus at the moment. Whether or not it will be reconsidered in the future depends on how the local regulatory environment develops. Our current strategy is to focus our energy on markets with huge growth potential worldwide.

However, 2024 is indeed a milestone year. The United States approved the Bitcoin ETF, and subsequently, many other jurisdictions have also approved it. This change has shifted institutional investors from suspicion to trust, and many previously wait-and-see institutions—including family offices, foundations, endowments, etc.—start to allocate crypto assets.

We believe this trend will continue to heat up in 2025, especially after the U.S. welcomes a president who supports cryptocurrency.

WIRED: What does it mean for the entire crypto industry to have a government that supports cryptocurrencies in the United States?

Richard Teng: The crypto industry has long struggled for legitimacy, hoping to obtain clear rules and regulatory frameworks. The United States' influence on a global scale is extremely important.

Under the leadership of the new administration, President Trump will appoint regulatory officials who are very supportive of cryptocurrencies. His discussion on establishing a strategic reserve of Bitcoin has changed the mindset of global sovereign wealth funds. Once the United States begins to consider this move, many countries around the world will follow suit.

Policymakers will closely monitor President Trump's move to appoint AI and cryptocurrency leaders. There must be deep considerations behind this, and other countries will also think about whether to take similar measures.

Things that are beneficial to the entire industry are equally good for us.

WIRED: Are you in touch with David Sacks, head of AI and cryptocurrency affairs in the United States? How do you view his appointment?

Richard Teng: Our private meetings are always confidential.

WIRED: Let’s change the topic, I want to talk about the challenges to the business model of trading platforms. Over the past year, ETFs have provided investors with an alternative way to enter the crypto market. At the same time, the transaction volume of peer-to-peer trading platforms accounts for one-fifth of the market for the first time. How do you view these competitive pressures?

Richard Teng: We believe that the liquidity cost of obtaining crypto assets exposure through ETFs is very high. ETFs can only trade Monday to Friday, while market news is 24/7 uninterrupted. From a hedging and risk management perspective, ETFs are not the ideal tool. ETFs are just the first step for investors to enter the crypto market, not the final destination.

As the mainstreaming and institutionalization of the crypto market deepens, we believe that centralized trading platforms and decentralized trading platforms will continue to grow.

If we want to achieve the goal of one billion users, we must continue to launch new product features. Last year, we launched Wallet and Binance Square, a social platform focused on the crypto space. The payments business is also an important area of ​​growth – since launching Binance Pay two years ago, we have traded nearly $26 billion.

In addition to trading fees – the core source of revenue for trading platforms – we will continue to explore other opportunities that can help users deepen their crypto journeys.