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Binance has appointed Justin Yek as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO), replacing Kaiser Ng, who is leaving the cryptocurrency exchange to pursue a new venture. The company reportedly announced the leadership change on Saturday, days after hackers stole about $6.3 billion in digital assets from its platform.
According to a Bloomberg report dated November 7, Binance co-CEO Yi He confirmed Ng’s departure, saying he had worked at the company for more than five years. She also said the exchange had been preparing for the change over the past six months, suggesting that the departure was not a sudden decision following the recent security breach.
“Kaiser Ng has decided to pursue a new venture after more than five years at Binance, with a transition plan implemented over the last half year,” Yi He said in a statement.
Justin Yek takes over Binance’s financial operations
Yek joins Binance with experience in finance and the technology industry. Before his appointment, he served as vice president of finance at Airwallex. He also worked at Morgan Stanley, where he led Southeast Asia technology investment banking, according to his LinkedIn profile.
His appointment comes as the exchange continues to deal with the fallout from the security breach. As the new CFO, Yek will take charge of Binance’s financial operations while the company works to address the consequences of the security incident.
How hackers stole $6.3 billion from Binance
The leadership change comes less than two weeks after hackers carried out a major attack against Binance on October 29.
According to Binance’s November 3 update, the attackers spent several months targeting three of the exchange’s wallet engineers. The campaign began in June with a tampered software download and continued in September through a fake job interview.
The attackers eventually gained access to stolen employee credentials and used them to reach Binance’s internal wallet-signing service. This allowed them to submit withdrawal requests and move funds from a hot wallet identified as Binance 14.
The attack involved about 167,464 ETH and 63 other tokens across ten blockchains. Binance estimated the total loss at approximately $6.3 billion, while blockchain research firm TRM Labs placed it at $6.36 billion.
On Ethereum, the attackers used EIP-7702, a feature introduced in 2025, to turn the wallet into a tool they could control. They drained the wallet three times as Binance’s systems continued to refill it.
Binance said the attack did not involve breaking any blockchain or its encryption. Instead, the hackers gained access through compromised employee credentials and the exchange’s internal systems.
Crypto companies move to freeze stolen funds
Following the attack, several cryptocurrency companies took steps to prevent the stolen assets from being transferred further.
Tether, Circle, and World Liberty Financial used their stablecoin freeze mechanisms to freeze approximately $3 billion. The Arbitrum Security Council also froze another $30.5 million, while Aave paused its Avalanche markets. Binance suspended deposits and withdrawals at 22:15 UTC on October 29. The exchange also said it would cover all customer losses using its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and corporate funds.
On October 31, the FBI attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean state hacking group. The attribution followed similar findings from TRM Labs. However, North Korea denied the accusation.
Meanwhile, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic reported that the attackers had created a network of more than 20,000 wallets to move the stolen funds. However, the firm said the attackers had moved relatively little of their main Bitcoin and Ether holdings.
Also Read: Binance’s Yi He Explains 10,398 USDT Transfer Dispute, Denies UID Collision