Binance CEO Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao Warns Staff of Turbulent Times

Binance Chief Executive Officer Changpeng "CZ" Zhao has warned his staff to expect turbulent times ahead as the giant crypto exchange sees a wave of crypto outflows amid concerns about its financial health, according to an internal memo.

"While we expect the next several months to be bumpy, we will get past this challenging period – and we'll be stronger for having been through it," CZ wrote to his staff.

Bloomberg had earlier reported on the memo from CZ, which CoinDesk subsequently confirmed.

Binance saw crypto withdrawals worth more than $900 million early this week as users took direct custody of their coins in the wake of widespread criticism of the exchanges' audit report published last week.

"With regard to questions on the temporary halt of withdrawals of USDC, because we auto convert USDC to BUSD in order to retain large liquidity pools, we generally retain USDC deposits for future withdrawals," CZ said in the memo.

Cryptocurrency exchanges have been in a race to publish their audit report to prove customer assets are safe ever since FTX filed for bankruptcy last month.

CZ said that Binance is facing "a lot of extra scrutinies and tough questions", referring to recent withdrawals, while assuring that the "organization is built to last and will survive any crypto winter.”

Read more: Binance Withdrawals Surge as Concerns About Its Reserve Report Spook Traders

UPDATE (Dec. 14, 10:40 UTC): Adds confirmation from the memo.