Binance CFO Kaiser Ng exits after five years, Justin Yek named successor

Binance's money man is out. Kaiser Ng is reportedly leaving the crypto giant after more than five years, with former Airwallex executive Justin Yek lined up to take his seat, according to Cointelegraph.

Binance co-CEO Yi He framed the exit as a long-planned handoff, telling Reuters that Ng chose to pursue a new venture and that a transition plan had been running for the past half year. Ng's own LinkedIn page says he has held the CFO title since January 2022, following roughly five years in the same job at rival exchange Kraken.

Yek's résumé comes from outside crypto's executive circuit — he was vice-president of finance at payments firm Airwallex, per the report. His first job at Binance will be steadying the books at an exchange still reeling from the largest theft in crypto history.

That's the backdrop nobody can ignore. Cointelegraph reported that hackers pulled off about $6.3 billion from Binance on Oct. 29, a record haul for a crypto theft, and Binance said it would swallow the losses instead of pushing them onto customers. The FBI and several researchers have pinned the attack on North Korean hackers — an accusation that country denies.

The timing matters. A fresh finance chief walking in barely a week after a $6.3 billion drain puts Binance's financial controls and its promises to users under a harsh spotlight. With Asian exchanges already bracing as hacks pile up, the next chapter at Binance gets written by whoever can keep the vault shut.