Binance Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Changpeng Zhao, on Tuesday pleaded guilty and has agreed to step down from his role.
Binance which is the world’s largest crypto exchange, will be ordered to pay $4.3bn to settle multiple criminal violations uncovered by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), according to report.
Zhao is expected to appear in a Seattle federal court and enter his plea bargains.
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The development is coming more than five months after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Binance and its founder of lying to regulators about its operations.
About 13 charges were filed against Binance and Zhao in the federal case.
In March this year, the U.S. Commodity Futures and Trading Commission complicated the case for the company after filing a suit against Binance, Zhao and its Chief Compliance Officer, Samuel Lim, for alleged violation of trading and derivatives rules.
Binance was launched in June 2017 and within six months became the largest crypto exchange in the world.