Could a Planned CFO Change Make Customers Cover Binance’s Hack?

In a Nov. 8 report, Fox Business said Binance had named a new chief financial officer. The exchange did not announce a new customer fee or withdraw its pledge that users will not pay for the Oct. 29 cryptocurrency theft.

Kaiser Ng is leaving after more than five years, co-CEO He Yi said. Justin Yek, formerly a finance executive at payments firm Airwallex, will succeed him. A spokesperson told Fox Business the handover was planned more than six months ago and was not tied to the hack.

The theft itself is not a new event. Hackers took about $6.3 billion on Oct. 29, and the FBI has attributed the attack to North Korean hackers. The Nov. 8 article repeats a Nov. 3 company update: 98% of affected token assets had been replenished, and about $2.85 billion had been frozen or intercepted. Co-CEO Richard Teng has said customers would not bear the losses.

A new finance chief can matter to how Binance manages that recovery. It is not evidence that a U.S. account was charged, or that withdrawal rules changed, on Nov. 8.

Does Binance’s new CFO mean customers must cover the hack? No. The Nov. 8 report says the handover was planned months earlier, and the pledge that users will not bear the loss was not withdrawn.