Baku, November 23, AZERTAC

Outflows from Binance have amounted to more than $1 billion in the past 24 hours, not including bitcoin, according to data from blockchain analysis firm Nansen, after founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao stepped down and pleaded guilty Tuesday in a deal with the Department of Justice, according to CNBC.

Meanwhile, liquidity has dropped 25% over the same time frame as market makers pull back their positions, according to data provider Kaiko.

The outflows are significant and close to what happened previously when the exchange and its founder were charged with 13 securities violations by the SEC.

The exchange’s native token, BNB, is down more than 8% in the last 24 hours. Binance holds around $2.8 billion worth of BNB tokens, according to Nansen. And in March, after Binance phased out zero-fee trading of crypto asset pairs including bitcoin, a key incentive for customers, the exchange began to see its share of all spot trading drop.

Binance remains the world’s largest crypto exchange globally, processing billions of dollars in trading volume every year.

Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion in fines to the U.S. government. The plea deals end a yearslong investigation into the crypto exchange.

Assets of more than $65 billion remain on the platform, according to Nansen, meaning that Binance is likely capitalized enough to withstand a sudden rush of investors away from the platform. And while withdrawals are on the up, there has not yet been a “mass exodus” of funds from the exchange.

“After the momentary shock of the agreement with the announcement, there is no significant impact on most assets,” said Grzegorz Drozdz, a market analyst at investment firm Conotoxia Ltd.

“The cryptocurrency that seems to have suffered the most, losing more than 9%, is the BNB token from Binance. Of the top 100 cryptocurrencies, as many as 98 have seen a noticeable rebound over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin, meanwhile, fell 4% before rebounding and remaining with a loss of 1.3%,” he said.

Drozdz added that it may be a net positive for the industry now that the dispute with regulators is behind Binance and that the company has pledged to increase security measures.

“This, combined with the likely imminent approval of an ETF based on bitcoin quotes, could positively impact the crypto market in the long term,” said Drozdz.

That’s the multibillion-dollar question the cryptocurrency giant faces after Zhao agreed to a plea deal and stepped down from the company.

Started by the Chinese-born entrepreneur in 2017, Binance went from being a relatively obscure name to being a major force in crypto in a matter of weeks.