New Binance CEO's first job is to avert customer exodus

Mollify 150 million potentially jittery users, placate belligerent US regulators and keep high-profile founder Changpeng Zhao onside. These are just some of the tasks for crypto exchange Binance's new head Richard Teng. Teng, 53, succeeded Zhao as the chief executive of the world's largest crypto exchange after the company and Zhao pleaded guilty to US anti-money laundering and sanctions violations.

Zhao, Binance's founder, stepped down as CEO as part of a sweeping deal to resolve the Department of Justice probe. Binance will pay $4.3 billion in penalties one of the largest such agreements in US history while Zhao will pay a $50 million fine. He faces up to 10 years in prison but is expected to get no more than 18 months under a plea deal.

Taken together, the events are a breathtaking rebuke of crypto's linchpin exchange and land Teng with arguably the hardest job in the digital-asset sector. He has to rebuild trust in Binance, stem a slide in market share and field ongoing regulatory investigations around the world.