Just weeks after former crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted on seven counts, another titan of the industry is losing his throne.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao plead guilty on Tuesday to “violating and causing a financial institution to violate” the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires financial institutions to help weed out money laundering, according to documents filed in Seattle federal court. Zhao, known as CZ, agreed to pay a $50 million fine and resign from the company. It wasn’t immediately clear what sentence he may face.

The world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, pleaded guilty yesterday to criminal charges in the US, releasing a wave of pent-up tension that had hung over the crypto industry for years.

Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao will resign from the firm and has pleaded guilty to violating criminal law as part of a deal with the government of the United States.

Zhao’s resignation deal includes him pleading guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act, which deals with U.S. anti-money-laundering law. The 46-year-old Zhao, who doesn't live in the U.S., appeared in person on Tuesday in Seattle federal court, where he entered the guilty plea, Attorney General Merrick Garland said during a press conference announcing the action.

The chief executive of Binance, the largest global cryptocurrency exchange, plans to step down and plead guilty to violating criminal U.S. anti-money-laundering requirements, in a deal that may preserve the company’s ability to continue operating, according to court documents.

Other U.S. crypto exchanges are likely to be in the firing line after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this week sued Coinbase and Binance, two of the world's largest crypto exchanges, for allegedly breaching its rules.

The SEC on Tuesday alleged Coinbase traded at least 13 crypto assets that are securities and which should have been registered, while on Monday it also accused Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, of offering 12 cryptocurrency coins without registering them as securities.