Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, saw a significant uptick in withdrawals during news that its founder pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the U.S.

Data from DefiLlama showed that Binance’s 24-hour outflows topped $1 billion as of 3:30 p.m. Hong Kong time on Wednesday. The exchange's net outflows over 7 days amounted to $703.1 million.

Of the total outflows experienced by Binance, $605.9 million came across the Ethereum, BNB +1.45% chain, Avalanche, Fantom and Polygon networks, according to separate data compiled by Nansen.

The withdrawals come after Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao pled guilty on Tuesday to violating the Bank Secrecy Act and stepped down as the company’s CEO. Binance has since appointed Richard Teng as CEO.

As part of the plea deal, Zhao agreed to pay a $50 million fine. Binance will also pay a $4.3 billion fine after it pled guilty to several counts including money laundering, conspiracy to conduct an unlicensed money transmitting business, and sanctions violations. 

OKX sees largest daily inflows

Meanwhile, OKX enjoyed net inflows of $152 million in the past 24 hours, giving it the largest daily inflow today, followed by Bybit’s $50.9 billion and Bitstamp’s $30.5 million, according to DefiLlama. 

Binance’s native token BNB fell 9.1% in the past 24 hours to trade at $234.3, CoinGecko data showed.

Jason Atkins, chief commercial officer of crypto market maker Auros, told The Block that there is a second-order effect around market sentiment as “developments, such as the fines levied on Binance by the DOJ, are indicative of the positions of various regulatory bodies when it comes to historical infractions.” 

“We anticipate that this will accelerate the outflow of projects, exchanges, founders and firms from direct U.S. regulatory purview,” Atkins said. “Compliance will now be a non-negotiable so as to minimize lapses in the AML and KYC requirements in the U.S., irrespective of the country of incorporation.”

Despite the heavy blow dealt to its business in the U.S., Binance has already tried to frame a vision for its future. “[When] Binance first launched, it did not have compliance controls adequate for the company that it was quickly becoming, and it should have,” the company said in a blog post published today. “Over the past two years, we have worked hard to restructure our organization and personnel and upgrade our systems.”