A recent report alleges that the Trump Family has been in talks to take a stake in crypto exchange Binance’s US arm, which could facilitate the company’s return to the country. Simultaneously, the exchange’s co-founder, Changpeng Zhao, also known as “CZ,” has allegedly been “pushing” for a pardon from the Trump administration.
Trump Family In ‘Deal Talks’ For Binance US Stake?
On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that representatives of US President Donald Trump’s family have held talks to acquire a financial stake in Binance US since 2024. According to people familiar with the matter, the talks allegedly began as part of the global exchange’s plan to return to the US.
Binance reportedly contacted Trump’s camp, offering a business deal with the Presidential Family. The company “began exploring a return to the U.S. market last year around the time of Trump’s election win” and “told people it was willing to make a deal with Trump’s company and wanted to eliminate its legal problems,” the report states.
However, it was unclear how the Trump family stake would come together if they struck a deal. The WSJ sources said the options included the deal going through the Trump family crypto venture, World Liberty Financial (WLF).
Moreover, Steve Witkoff, the United States Special Envoy to the Middle East, was seemingly involved in the deal talks. Witkoff is a co-founder of WLF, but a Trump administration official denied any involvement, adding that he is “in the process of divesting from his business interests.”
The report claims that “After Trump won, Binance set up a working group under CEO Richard Teng, which included senior legal and compliance staff, to assess options. Executives knew that Zhao’s conviction complicated any return, as it would be difficult to sign up new commercial partners in the U.S. with a felon as a majority shareholder.”
As a result, the company executive “saw a potential legal playbook in the saga of Justin Sun,” who recently had the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pause its lawsuit against him. This route consisted of “a cash infusion into World Liberty Financial in exchange for a pardon for Zhao,” the sources told the news media outlet.
CZ Denies Claims Of “Pushing” For A Pardon
The report also stated that Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s co-founder and largest stakeholder, has been “pushing for the Trump administration to grant him a pardon” amid the deal talks, which allegedly continued after the US President’s inauguration.
The news caused outrage among several crypto investors, who considered the potential financial deal for a pardon “the cherry on top” of the recent TRUMP and MELANIA memecoin controversies.
CZ responded to the report, denying the allegations. In an X post, he stated, “The WSJ article got the facts wrong.” He explained that over 20 people informed him they had been asked to confirm the “deal for a pardon” by the WSJ and other media outlets.
According to the Binance founder, he has not discussed a Binance US deal with anyone but noted, “No felon would mind a pardon, especially being the only one in US history who was ever sentenced to prison for a single BSA charge.”
To him, “they tried hard to make a story to report,” while the article feels like “an attack on the President and crypto, and the residual forces of the ‘war on crypto’ from the last administration are still at work.”
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported on Thursday that WLF “has discussed doing business with the world’s largest digital-asset exchange, Binance Holdings Ltd., according to four people with knowledge of the talks.”
The article stated that it is unclear what stage these discussions reached but included the possibility of the crypto exchange developing a US-backed stablecoin with the Trump Family’s crypto venture.
