Investors have withdrawn approximately $956 million from crypto exchange Binance in the past 24 hours, according to data firm Nansen.
This comes a day after Binance’s chief, Changpeng Zhao, resigned and pleaded guilty to violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws.
The plea deal, which requires Binance to pay $4.3 billion to U.S. authorities to settle the illicit finance probe, has raised questions about the future of the world’s largest crypto exchange.
This marks another setback for an industry already plagued by scandals. Zhao has been succeeded by Richard Teng, a senior Binance executive who joined the company in 2021.
The data from Nansen does not include bitcoin flows but indicates that Tuesday’s news has unsettled some of Binance’s customers. However, there are still over $65 billion of assets on the platform.
“Binance has seen significant exchange outflows since the announcement, but relative to their total holdings, it’s quite small,” Nansen analysts said.
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Investors withdrew around $1.43 billion from the crypto exchange and its U.S. affiliate in June after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued the companies.
Zhao’s departure marks a significant development for one of the most influential figures in the crypto industry. Zhao, who resides in Dubai, entered his plea in a Seattle court on Tuesday.
He agreed to pay a $50 million fine and faces a maximum prison sentence of 18 months under federal guidelines. The exact amount of jail time the Justice Department is seeking is not yet clear, but Zhao has agreed not to appeal any sentence up to that length.
Zhao has agreed to appear at a Feb. 23 sentencing hearing in Seattle after promising a $175 million bond and another $15 million held in a trust account. He has agreed to return to the United States 14 days before sentencing.