Binance's Chief Marketing Officer Rachel Conlan will step down from her position at the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange on June 15.
Eowyn Chen, the former CEO of Trust Wallet, will take over as interim CMO.
Conlan will remain with the company in an advisory capacity to help facilitate a smooth leadership transition.
Conlan was appointed CMO of the crypto giant in September 2023. Prior to that promotion, she served as Binance's Vice President of Global Marketing. Before joining Binance, she spent a year at rival exchange OKX as global head of brand and partnerships, working under CMO Haider Rafique.
In her role, Conlan led both global and regional marketing teams with a focus on building the Binance brand. She oversaw high-profile celebrity and sports partnerships, securing notable deals with football star Cristiano Ronaldo, the Alpine Formula One team, musician The Weeknd, and social media influencer Khaby Lame.
Conlan was also responsible for expanding partnerships with key opinion leaders to draw new users into the Web3 space and spearheaded several educational initiatives aimed at people with limited cryptocurrency knowledge. In March 2024, she even launched a fragrance released by the exchange to mark International Women's Day.
A Binance spokesperson stated that Conlan is leaving to "focus on personal priorities." However, her departure is widely seen as connected to a broader industry-wide reassessment of costly advertising strategies. Major cryptocurrency exchanges have recently pulled back on high-cost marketing spending, with many firms scaling down expensive sponsorship arrangements.
This shift has pushed several marketing leaders out of the industry. Crypto.com CMO Steven Kalifowitz departed the company just last week, and Bybit CEO Ben Zhou recently announced that the exchange will not renew its Formula One sponsorship.
Why it matters
Within a short period, both Binance and Crypto.com lost their CMOs, and Bybit announced it would not renew its Formula One sponsorship — three concurrent events that illustrate how multiple major exchanges are pulling back on high-cost marketing at the same time.
Binance's decision to name an interim CMO rather than an immediate permanent replacement means the exchange's marketing leadership structure remains unsettled during a period when the broader industry is reassessing sponsorship and advertising budgets.
Conlan will stay on in an advisory capacity, a step the company says is intended to support a smooth leadership transition as Eowyn Chen, the former CEO of Trust Wallet, steps into the interim role.
