Binance CEO rejects claims of Trump-linked stablecoin deal for CZ pardon

The head of Binance is pushing back hard against claims that the crypto platform gave special treatment to a digital coin linked to the Trump family to get a presidential pardon for its former ￰0￱ Teng runs the world’s biggest crypto ￰1￱ went on TV Monday to talk about the whole ￰2￱ the center of it all is a huge $2 billion deal between Binance and MGX, an investment company owned by Abu Dhabi’s ￰3￱ catch? The entire thing was done using USD1 , a digital currency made by World Liberty Financial, which is run by the Trump ￰4￱ MGX made its investment and Binance added USD1 to its trading platform, it gave the stablecoin a massive ￰5￱ its usage and reputation shot up.

Now, some lawmakers and reporters are asking if these moves had anything to do with President Trump’s decision to pardon Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, who formerly ran ￰6￱ wasn’t having it when CNBC asked him about it. “First of all, the usage of USD1 for the transaction between MGX as a strategic investor into Binance, that was decided by MGX … We didn’t partake in that decision,” he ￰7￱ also pointed out that other exchanges listed USD1 before Binance ￰8￱ the biggest crypto platform out there, Binance regularly works with new projects that look promising. “Sometimes it works ￰9￱ it doesn’t. In the case of USD1, I’m glad that both parties worked it out,” he ￰10￱ are getting loud about it Washington lawmakers have ramped up their scrutiny of CZ’s pardon and how Binance is tied to the Trump family’s crypto ￰11￱ Elizabeth Warren sits on the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and she’s been one of the loudest voices.

She’s flat-out accused Binance and the Trump White House of ￰12￱ put out a statement last month. “First, Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to a criminal money laundering ￰13￱ he boosted one of Donald Trump’s crypto ventures and lobbied for a pardon,” she said, before the President “did his part.” Binance didn’t respond right away when asked about ￰14￱ stepped down as chief executive back in 2023, but Teng says he’s still the company’s biggest ￰15￱ have been questioning World Liberty Financial’s open connections to the Trump administration for a while now, especially as it goes after new deals and investors ￰16￱ company’s website says DT Marks DEFI LLC, a Trump-linked firm, along with Trump family members, gets a big chunk of the platform’s ￰17￱ also hold digital tokens that back the company, called ￰18￱ is the venture has brought in hundreds of millions, maybe billions, for the Trump ￰19￱ the website also says Trump, his family, or anyone from the Trump Organization or DT Marks DEFI LLC isn’t an officer, director, founder, employee, manager, owner, or operator of World Liberty Financial or any related ￰20￱ timing looks suspicious When MGX bought $2 billion worth of USD1 tokens, it raised some eyebrows.

A New York Times piece in September noted it happened just two weeks before the White House signed a major agreement with the UAE about access to hundreds of thousands of American ￰21￱ had to resign from Binance in 2023 after he admitted to letting money laundering happen through the ￰22￱ House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on October 23 that Zhao got prosecuted under the Biden administration “despite no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims.” Trump said later that he pardoned Zhao “at the request of a lot of very good people” and claimed he knew nothing about him ￰23￱ he got back in office, Trump’s been all about cryptocurrency.

He’s proposed new crypto laws and rolled back enforcement actions that went after exchanges like Coinbase and Ripple when Biden was in charge. Monday, Teng said Binance and the crypto industry as a whole “were very thankful” to the president for pardoning CZ and for saying the United States would become the “global crypto capital of the world.” Want your project in front of crypto’s top minds? Feature it in our next industry report, where data meets impact.