After CZ partially refuted an explosive WSJ article, Bloomberg used its own sources to corroborate a few claims. It maintains that World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a project affiliated with the Trump family, considered doing business with Binance.
However, this latter report said nothing about CZ attempting to get a pardon from Trump. Allegedly, WLFI was in talks with Binance to launch a new USD-backed stablecoin.
Is Trump Planning to Invest in Binance
Earlier today, a WSJ report claimed that the Trump family was in talks to buy a significant stake in Binance.US. One of the key rumors was that Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the former CEO of Binance, was angling for a pardon as part of the deal.
CZ refuted these allegations via social media, but his denial entirely focused on his own personal actions.
“I have had no discussions of a Binance US deal with … well, anyone. No felon would mind a pardon, especially being the only one in US history who was ever sentenced to prison for a single Bank Secrecy Act charge. Feels like the article is motivated as an attack on the President and crypto. I am always happy to make crypto great everywhere,” CZ said.
However, Bloomberg insists that a serious negotiation between Binance and the Trump family did take place. After CZ’s denial, the publication cited four anonymous sources who claim knowledge of these talks.
Apparently, the key link in this possible collaboration would be World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a Trump-affiliated DeFi project.
Although the President does not directly control any aspect of WLFI, its site claims that his son Eric “serves as one of the managers on the board of managers.”
Furthermore, “certain family members of Donald J. Trump” hold WLFI tokens and potentially receive a significant portion of its revenue.
In these purported talks, WLFI considered developing a new dollar-backed stablecoin with Binance. WLFI also allegedly considered buying a significant stake in Binance.US. The report does not allege that either President Trump or CZ was personally involved in these discussions.
President Trump has already faced severe criticism about a potential conflict of interest with his TRUMP meme coin, and a Binance partnership could prove even dicier. The President’s directives to federal regulators substantially impact the firm’s operations.
In other words, this situation could be much more explosive than corruption fears around political meme coins.
Since Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, other crypto criminals like Sam Bankman-Fried lobbied the President too. However, it’s not illegal to want one. CZ said “no felon would mind a pardon,” not that he asked.
Additionally, WLFI has already conducted major crypto partnerships since Trump took office, and these aren’t its first outside investments. Even if WLFI representatives are planning to link up with Binance, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the exchange will have a close line to Donald Trump. It could be a normal business operation, but it still raises concerns.
Ultimately, this situation is very gray. Bloomberg‘s sources also claimed that Steve Witkoff, a co-founder of WLFI and one of Trump’s key diplomatic envoys, met CZ at a conference in December.
Case in point, CZ responded a second time, also disparaging Bloomberg’s coverage. He called this article a “baseless hit piece” and “purely imaginary,” and referred to a 2022 defamation suit he filed against the publication.
However, other than these ad hominem attacks, he only made one direct and substantive claim:
“They basically admitted that their whole article is purely imaginary. Is this what news has become? Fact: I/Binance have no business deals with WLF or the people mentioned in their article. We also did not buy any of the WLF coins,” he said.
Bloomberg never suggested that such a deal took place or that Binance ever purchased any WLFI tokens. It only stated that the matter was discussed.
Additionally, Witkoff and CZ were both speakers on the same day at the Bitcoin MENA 2024 conference. Public documents show that a meeting could have happened. In effect, CZ didn’t refute anything substantial.
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