Binance Increases Compliance Staff Hiring by 34% Compared to Last Year

Continuing to rapidly expand its compliance department, Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, announced that it will hire 645 full-time compliance employees by the end of the year, a 34 percent increase compared to last November.

According to Binance’s press release on Friday, the crypto exchange currently has more than 1,000 employees focused on compliance, including those who handle contracts.

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the then-CEO of the crypto exchange, which just a year ago agreed to pay a $4.3 billion fine to US regulators for violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and allowing users to evade international sanctions, said as part of the settlement. He resigned his position and served four months in prison for BSA violations.

Following Zhao’s departure, Richard Teng, who previously served in regulatory bodies in Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, took over as head of Binance. The company has made significant changes to its regulatory compliance model since then, and announced all of these to ensure that the changes are sustainable in the long term.

These efforts, which accelerated during Teng’s tenure as CEO, actually started long before Zhao resigned in November 2023. Tigran Gambaryan, Binance’s head of financial crimes compliance, left the Internal Revenue Service and joined the exchange in 2021. Noah Perlman, the company’s chief compliance officer, also started his role in January 2023. Binance announced that its spending on compliance increased by 36% in 2023.

“Our industry has entered a paradigm shift and a new phase of maturity where regulatory compliance is a foundational standard for user experience and protection, business success and responsible growth,” Perlman said. “Binance has matured with regulators and other players over the years. The continued growth of our compliance team and program is a testament to this shift, poised for strong and sustainable growth in our industry.”

Some of Binance’s recent hires include people with long tenures in traditional finance and government.

Binance’s new director of corporate compliance, Todd McElduff, who will lead the exchange’s engagement with global law enforcement, previously led global financial crimes oversight at PayPal. He was previously head of the financial crime division at Morgan Stanley.

Additionally, Binance hired two dedicated investigation experts, Céline Inial for France and Caner Akyürek for Türkiye. It was stated that both Inial and Akyürek had previously spent approximately 20 years in the law enforcement forces of their respective countries.

“As global crypto adoption also grows rapidly, we are hiring top talent to strengthen our already industry-leading compliance program and team to meet the demands of our rapidly maturing industry,” Perlman said. “We’re proud to lead the industry standards in protecting users. Growth in our compliance team enables us to continue protecting our global user base of more than 240 million.”