Two key executives immediately left the second largest cryptocurrency exchange OKX, causing speculation and concern in the crypto community.
Former Okcoin CEO and then OK Group government relations officer Tim Byun and OKX product chief Wei Lan have left their positions. The publication writes about this CoinDesk citing sources familiar with the situation.
Why OKX top managers are leaving
Tim Byun is a well-known figure in the crypto community. After serving as CEO of Okcoin from 2018 to 2020, he moved into a role focused on global government relations. Despite the news of the dismissal already spreading, there are no sudden changes to Byun's LinkedIn profile so far.
Tim Byun's work experience. Source: LinkedIn
Wei Lang played an important role in managing the operations of OKX's trading department – he oversaw most of the activities of this department of the exchange. Lan, like Byun, reportedly left the company in April this year.
In addition, in January of this year, the crypto platform left Head of Global Compliance Patrick Donegan. He worked at OKX for only six months, his LinkedIn profile says.
Currently, the firm behind the OKX crypto exchange is in the process of consolidating its parts under a single brand. Thus, the site intends to move away from the American structure.
Following in the footsteps of Binance
The reshuffle in OKX's senior management to some extent repeats the events that took place at Binance before settling the conflict with regulators. At the end of last year, as part of a deal with authorities who accused the platform of violating banking secrecy and money laundering, the crypto exchange paid a fine of $4.3 billion.
Major litigation was foreshadowed by a wave of dismissals of top managers. Counter-terrorism financial adviser Jennifer Hicks was one of the first to leave the company. In addition, Business Director Yibo Ling and Binance Global Head of Product and Design Mayur Kamath also left Binance in a short period of time.
Large crypto exchanges are constantly under close scrutiny from regulators around the world. OKX recently announced its withdrawal from Uzbekistan. Representatives of the crypto platform did not voice the exact reasons. However, it is assumed that the reason was changes in the licensing of crypto companies in the country.
In mid-March, the crypto exchange closed pairs with the stablecoin Tether (USDT) for European clients. Thus, OKX is probably preparing to implement the MiCA (Markets in Crypto-assets) directive.
Source: Cryptocurrency
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