Who is Richard Teng? Why did he become Zhao Changpeng's successor?

On June 5, 2023, Bloomberg reported that if Changpeng Zhao resigns due to regulatory difficulties, Richard Teng will become the next Binance CEO.

Half a year later, on November 22, 2023, after the US SEC and Binance reached a sky-high settlement, Binance founder Zhao Changpeng announced his resignation as Binance CEO on the X platform, and Binance Global Regional Market Director Richard Teng was officially appointed as Binance's new CEO.

Bloomberg's news became a far-reaching prediction.

Who is Richard Teng? Why did he become Zhao Changpeng's "successor"?

Who is Richard Teng?

According to Linkedin, Richard Teng is 52 years old and is a Singaporean. He studied at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore from 1991 to 1994. After university in 1994, he became a Singaporean civil servant and worked at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), rising to the position of Director of the Corporate Finance Department of MAS.

While working at MAS in Singapore, Richard Teng continued to improve himself. He graduated with a master's degree from the University of Western Australia in 1998 and from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a world-renowned business school, in 2004.

In 2007, Richard Teng left Singapore MAS and moved to Singapore Exchange (SGX), where he served as Senior Vice President, Head of Issuer Supervision and Chief Compliance Officer.

Richard Teng joined Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) as CEO in March 2015. According to ADGM, Richard Teng's tenure as CEO has earned ADGM recognition from global regulators and industry bodies , such as ADGM winning the "Best International Financial Company in the Middle East and North Africa" ​​award from global investor publication Euromoney for four consecutive times.

Richard Teng left ADGM in March 2021 and joined Binance in August 2021 as CEO of Binance Singapore. In November 2023, he officially became the successor to Changpeng Zhao.

Richard Teng's rapid rise at Binance

According to Richard Teng's personal Linkedin, he was promoted rapidly after joining Binance in 2021, especially after November 2022 .

November 2022 was the time when FTX announced bankruptcy after being blocked by Binance CEO Zhao Changpeng.

As we all know, the collapse of FTX has brought a huge impact on the cryptocurrency industry, especially the re-examination of the crypto industry by institutional investors and regulators.

Before November 2022, Richard Teng was in charge of the Middle East and North Africa market for nearly 11 months. After November 2022, Richard Teng was rapidly promoted in Binance, from being responsible for the European and Middle East and North Africa markets, to being responsible for the Asian, European and Middle East and North Africa markets, and then to the latest appointment of leading all regional markets outside the United States on May 29, 2023. Richard Teng completed all this within 6 months.

What happened to Binance this year

After a series of crypto institutions collapsed in 2022, especially the collapse of FTX, global regulators changed their attitude towards the crypto industry and tended to strictly regulate it.

As the world's largest centralized exchange, the regulatory pressure faced by Binance is self-evident.

Over the past year, Binance and Zhao Changpeng have been facing increasing regulatory pressure from regulators in various countries, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, Dubai and other places.

In February 2023, BUSD issuer Paxos stated that at the request of the regulator, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), it will stop minting and issuing BUSD from February 21.

On March 27, 2023, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that it had filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, accusing Changpeng Zhao and three entities operating the Binance platform of multiple violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations.

Dubai, which has always been friendly to the crypto community, is also stepping up its scrutiny of cryptocurrency license applicants, requiring applicants such as Binance to provide more information. In April 2023, Bloomberg quoted sources as saying that officials from the Dubai Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) had asked Binance to provide more information about its ownership structure, governance and audit procedures in recent weeks.

On May 13, 2023, Binance announced that due to changes in regulatory policies, it will no longer provide services to Canadian users and will proactively withdraw from the Canadian market.

On May 18, 2023, Binance Australia tweeted that it had suspended Australian dollar services due to the discontinuation of support by local payment service providers. Binance users in Australia can no longer deposit and withdraw Australian dollars through bank transfers. From June 1, Binance will stop all Australian dollar trading pairs.

On June 5, 2023, the U.S. SEC sued Binance and Changpeng Zhao, filing 13 charges against Binance and Changpeng Zhao, including operating an unregistered exchange, broker-dealer, and clearing agency; misrepresenting trading control and supervision on the Binance.US platform; unregistered securities issuance and sales, etc.

On November 22, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice reached a sky-high settlement agreement with Binance, with a total fine of $4.316 billion for Binance, including $3.4 billion from the U.S. Treasury Department's FINCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) and $968 million from OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control).

Conclusion

Let’s take a look at Richard Teng’s impressive resume. He is Singaporean, Chinese, Wharton, has a background in a prestigious school, graduated from Singapore MAS, and is recognized by global regulators. Richard Teng has all these labels in one person.

Or maybe that's why Zhao Changpeng chose Richard Teng.