Brian Brooks resigned as Binance.US CEO, SEC complaint may explain why.
The latest complaint against Binance by the SEC may shed light on why former CEO of Binance.US, Brian Brooks, chose to step down in August 2021, only three months after taking office. According to cryptocurrency lawyer James Murphy, the SEC complaint cites an unnamed source who briefly ran Binance.US in 2021, during the time that Brooks was CEO. Brooks, a former top banking regulator, replaced former CEO Catherine Coley on May 1, 2021, but quickly realized that he was not actually running the company and decided to resign.
While Murphy’s speculation has been challenged by Binance Chief Communications Officer Patrick Hillman, the news came after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission filed a total of 13 charges against Binance for allegedly operating illegally in the U.S. and failing to register as a securities exchange. The news had a negative impact on the price of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ether.
Senior equity research analyst at Berenberg Capital, Mark Palmer, believes that the details revealed in the lawsuit against Binance, Bittrex, and Kraken may represent a preview of the action that is likely to be filed against blockchain. Palmer suggests that blockchain investors should be focusing on whether the exchange has the ability to pivot its business model and geographic focus if it were forced to curtail or cease a large portion of its operations in the U.S. as a result of SEC enforcement.