Binance Power Shift: The Dual CEO Experiment of He Yi and Richard Teng

Written by: Clow

In December 2025, Binance made a decision.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange announced that co-founder Yi He would serve as Co-CEO alongside current CEO Richard Teng.

This was not a simple personnel adjustment. Binance has nearly 300 million users, but is also burdened with a historic $4.3 billion fine and is under five years of independent monitoring by the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

At Blockchain Week Dubai (BBW 2025), Yi He spoke publicly for the first time as Co-CEO. Her message was clear: Binance aims to move on from “wild growth” to “institutional maturity.”

The core issue: How do you turn a crypto-native exchange into an “evergreen” company under regulatory constraints?

The answer from Binance is the Co-CEO system.

Two CEOs, One Outward, One Inward

Dual-CEO structures are not new in business, but Binance’s approach is a bit different—this isn’t about sharing power, it’s about precise division of labor.

Yi He calls this “1+1>2.” The roles of the two CEOs are very clear:

Richard Teng: Handling Regulation

Richard Teng handles external matters. With decades of experience in traditional financial markets, he’s positioned as Binance’s “best bridge to global regulators.”

His job is clear: obtain global licenses, raise compliance standards, and ensure smooth operations in all jurisdictions. For a company under U.S. regulatory scrutiny, this role is critical.

Yi He: Managing Internally

Yi He is responsible for internal operations. As a co-founder, she has shaped Binance’s culture from the very beginning.

At the Dubai conference, Yi He emphasized three things:

First, user first. This is Binance’s foundation and the driver of product innovation. Second, build systems. The company can no longer rely on individuals, but must be run by organizational systems. Third, bet on AI. Technological innovation is the fundamental driver of industry progress.

Specifically, Yi He oversees user experience, corporate culture, HR, customer support, institutional business, marketing, P2P, and wealth management.

The logic of this division is clear: Richard Teng builds the framework, Yi He innovates within it. One builds external trust, the other maintains internal vitality.

Hiring, Massive Hiring

Yi He repeatedly mentioned one term in Dubai: “evergreen organization.”

What does it mean? Binance should not rely on a single leader, but on systems. How? By increasing “talent density.”

Yi He has made “hiring” the top priority. Data shows Binance hired over 1,000 new employees in 2024, with 500+ open positions across core areas like technology, compliance, and customer support.

This is not mere expansion, but a restructuring of capabilities.

Binance’s early success relied heavily on the charisma and decisions of its founders. But with nearly 300 million users and business spanning dozens of countries, individual ability is no longer enough.

More importantly, compliance failures are often due to a lack of “people”—not enough professional compliance staff, overreliance on founders’ decisions.

So when Yi He talks about “talent density,” it’s essentially about replacing individual capability with organizational capability. This is a necessary choice in the post-founder era.

AI’s Dual Role

Technological innovation is another focus for Yi He. She believes AI is the fundamental driver of industry progress.

Binance’s AI strategy has two tracks:

On one hand, AI is used for compliance and risk monitoring. Trade monitoring, sanctions screening, KYC automation—all require AI. This is crucial for meeting FinCEN regulatory requirements.

On the other hand, AI is used to optimize products and user experience. From customer support to trading optimization, from risk alerts to personalized services, AI is being integrated into every aspect.

The logic is clear: first use AI to nail compliance, then use AI to drive innovation.

Listing Standards: No Fees, Give Users Cheap Tokens

During the Dubai Q&A, Yi He revealed a major shift in Binance’s listing policy.

Zero Tolerance for “White Gloves”

There have long been rumors of “white glove” corruption in Binance listings. Yi He responded directly: “Binance has never had white gloves,” and so-called friends or relatives are impersonators and scammers.

She also disclosed the listing rule: Binance charges no listing fees. Projects wishing to list must airdrop or offer low-priced tokens to users.

Yi He said that it’s precisely because the standards and thresholds are high that some people try to profit from it. But with more global licenses, the crypto market is “no longer a lawless land—any behavior that undermines a fair and transparent market will be severely punished.”

Aligning Exchanges and Users

Eliminating listing fees and forcing projects to distribute tokens to users is a clever design.

It aligns the interests of the platform and retail users, while keeping out those projects that only want hype and have no real value.

Project teams must share value with users, turning token listings into a user acquisition tool, rather than a revenue source.

This change is critical. From “volume-driven” to “user value-driven,” Binance is setting new industry standards.

Yi He also emphasized she is not from a privileged background, so she understands ordinary users better. “Binance’s innovation must start from the user’s perspective.”

Maintaining “user first” with nearly 300 million users and daily trading volumes of tens of billions of dollars is in itself a testament to governance ability.

Betting on the Middle East and Asia

Yi He clarified Binance’s geographic expansion priorities: the Middle East and Asia.

Two Pillar Markets

Binance aims to strengthen its presence in the Middle East and Asia, making these two regions the main engines for growth.

Holding BBW 2025 in Dubai is a signal in itself. Dubai, with its Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), has become a key global crypto hub.

In Asia, South Korea is seen as “one of the most important countries” by Binance. The company pledges continued investment, improvement of user experience, and regards Korea as a “core market that can never be abandoned.”

Why these regions? Clear regulation and rapid growth. These markets allow Binance to showcase compliance achievements, avoid being dragged down by U.S. legacy issues, and accelerate user growth.

The 1 Billion User Goal

Binance’s goal is 1 billion users. Going from nearly 300 million to 1 billion is not just about numbers; it’s a test of infrastructure, compliance capability, and operational efficiency.

The regulatory-friendly environments of the Middle East and Asia make this goal possible. Success in these markets brings users, compliance milestones, and strengthens Binance’s global image.

Transformation Is Not Easy

Despite a clear strategy, institutional transformation is never simple. The Co-CEO system faces three challenges:

How Will Two CEOs Work Together?

With two CEOs, who has the final say? Especially in high-risk decisions involving compliance and operations.

Yi He’s “1+1>2” hinges on clear division—external vs. internal, compliance vs. innovation. More importantly, the two CEOs must be politically and culturally compatible. There will be friction between growth and compliance; the key is making that friction constructive.

How to Balance Innovation and Compliance?

Binance is under FinCEN/DOJ scrutiny, and every new product or market entry must pass compliance checks. This will inevitably slow down Yi He’s innovation pace.

The solution is prioritization: use AI for compliance and risk management first, then for product innovation.

The Co-CEO structure is designed to manage the tension between speed and compliance, ensuring that innovation never outpaces compliance.

Can It Be Executed Well?

Binance is undergoing a difficult transformation: from a decentralized, high-growth startup culture to a formal, regulated financial institution.

Yi He’s focus on talent density is laying the foundation for this transformation—hiring world-class experts, making decisions more professional, and reducing single-point risk. If a truly “evergreen” system is built, regulatory and operational risks can be greatly reduced.

Summary

Yi He’s Co-CEO appointment and the strategies she outlined in Dubai are not passive responses to regulation, but proactive evolution.

The Co-CEO structure is a key step in Binance’s shift from wild growth to sustainable scale. Richard Teng handles external regulation, Yi He upgrades internal systems, enhances talent, and drives AI innovation.

From “talent density” to AI deployment, from user-first listing standards to betting on the Middle East and Asia, Binance is building a long-term foundation.

Over the next five to ten years, Binance’s success will depend on balancing the two CEOs’ domains—accepting regulatory constraints in the short term, and becoming a global infrastructure connecting crypto innovation and traditional finance in the long term.

The Co-CEO system is the organizational tool to achieve this. Its outcome could become the industry model for large exchange governance in the post-founder era.

The story Binance is writing is not just a company’s transformation, but a turning point for the entire crypto industry from “lawless land” to “institutional maturity.”

When Yi He said in Dubai, “Binance wants to be a century-old company,” she was describing a more responsible, more sustainable, and stronger crypto world.

Whether this experiment succeeds will redefine what “responsible scaled growth” means.