Major news publications claim that Binance and Trump associates are in business talks – something Zhao denies.
Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s founder and former CEO, has denied that he discussed a pardon or business deal with U.S. President Donald Trump and his associates.
The Wall Street Journal claimed that representatives of Trump’s family held talks to take a financial stake in Binance.US and that Zhao pressed for a pardon alongside that development. Supposedly, Binance initially contacted Trump allies about a deal in 2024 in an attempt to allow its U.S. arm to resume operations.
Bloomberg advanced related claims, stating that the Trump-affiliated crypto project World Liberty Financial had discussed doing business with Binance. The talks supposedly touched on the possibility of a stablecoin collaboration.
Both reports describe the involvement of World Liberty Financial co-founder Steve Witkoff, though a Trump administration official denied Witkoff’s involvement in a statement to the Wall Street Journal.
The reports rely on statements from unnamed individuals, and none of the supposedly involved parties have officially confirmed the talks.
On X, Zhao denied the Wall Street Journal report, stating that although a pardon would be desirable, he has had “no discussions of a Binance.US deal with [anyone].”
He later called the Bloomberg report a “baseless hit piece.” Zhao said neither he nor Binance have business deals with World Liberty Financial or others mentioned in the article, nor have they purchased any World Liberty Financial cryptocurrencies.
Zhao claimed that the news outlets created the stories by asking leading questions to their sources, adding that he personally knew of 20 people who had been contacted. Hundreds of people may have been contacted overall, he speculated.
Zhao called the media rumors a “motivated attack on the President and crypto” and said “residual forces” from the Biden administration continue to target crypto.
In November 2023, Zhao pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program at Binance, thereby violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act.
Following his guilty plea, Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison in April 2024 and was released in September 2024. Although Zhao is no longer the CEO of Binance, he remains the company’s largest shareholder.
Binance group companies faced separate consequences. Binance itself paid over $4.3 billion in fines to various U.S. agencies and agreed to be monitored for compliance. Binance.US, meanwhile, remains involved in a civil lawsuit initiated by the U.S. SEC, though that lawsuit was paused in February.
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