Binance's Chief Finance Exec Has Abruptly Left the Company

Wei Zhou, the chief finance officer at Binance, has left the company, according to a spokesperson at the biggest crypto exchange by trading volume, after having worked there for nearly three years.

"After three years at Binance, Wei has decided to leave for personal reasons," the spokesperson said in an email. "While we cannot comment on what Wei will do next, we would like to thank him for his services and contributions during his time here."

It is unclear when specifically he left the exchange, but a Twitter account appeared to be associated with him was still tweeting about Binance as of June 9. Binance later clarified with CoinDesk that the account does not represent Zhou and has reported the impersonation account to Twitter.

Binance recruited Zhou in 2018 for his "over 15 years of executive experience" in both finance and technology industries. Zhou graduated from Harvard University and served as the vice chairman at Grindr, the world's leading LGBTQ social platform, before he came to the exchange.

Given his track record of creating initial public offerings, there were rumors at the time of Zhou's hiring that Binance was considering going public. Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, denied the rumor.

Zhou did not immediately return a request for comment sent via Twitter.

UPDATE (June 9, 2021, 19:28 UTC): Binance's spokesperson later clarified with CoinDesk that the Twitter account associated with Wei Zhou was an impersonation account.