Bitcoin, BNB slide as Binance CEO resigns, pleads guilty to DOJ charges

investing.com:

Investing.com-- The price of Bitcoin fell sharply on Wednesday after Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, CEO of Binance, resigned from the world’s largest crypto exchange and pleaded guilty to several criminal charges from the Department of Justice. 

This saw BNB, Binance’s native token, slump nearly 11%, with Binance now facing an over $4 billion fine for breaking several U.S. anti-money laundering laws and skirting financial regulations.

Bitcoin fell nearly 5% to $35,714- erasing a bulk of its gains made over the past two weeks, while world no. 2 crypto Ethereum sank 4.5%. 

CZ pleaded guilty in a Seattle court on Tuesday, and announced his resignation on social media platform X. Richard Teng, former head of Abu Dhabi’s financial authority and currently the head of Binance’s regional markets, will take his place as CEO. 

CZ is now barred from any involvement in Binance, faces a personal $50 million fine and could potentially face prison time. 

His resignation, along with Binance’s settlement, ends a years-long probe into the world’s largest crypto exchange over its alleged fostering of money laundering activities, particularly for entities under U.S. sanctions. The DOJ, along with a series of investigative pieces by Reuters, had alleged that Binance knowingly skirted regulations and even encouraged its users to bypass government restrictions on the exchange.

The settlement also deals another blow to the credibility of the crypto industry, coming just a few weeks after FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty of committing fraud and misusing customer funds at the now-defunct crypto exchange. 

The crypto industry has been grappling with a severe loss of faith over the past year, which was marked by several high-profile