Much of the scrutiny centers on Binance\u2019s connection to the Trump-linked decentralized finance (DeFi) venture World Liberty Financial (WLFI).\u00a0<\/p>\n
That connection traces back to a $2 billion investment made in March 2025 by MGX, a state\u2011owned firm based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. MGX invested in Binance using USD1, a stablecoin created by World Liberty Financial.<\/p>\n
Zhao emphasized that the payment method was chosen by the investor, not Binance. \u201cMGX is the investor. They choose USD1,\u201d he said. \u201cMy request to them was they pay us in crypto. I don\u2019t want to deal with banks, really.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to Zhao, the use of the venture\u2019s USD1 stablecoin has been wrongly interpreted as evidence of a deeper relationship. \u201cMany people misconstrued that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
WLFI Push Back On Political Influence Claims<\/h2>\n
In a statement, WLFI spokesperson David Wachsman said the company played no role in the pardon process. \u201cAs we have stated many times, WLFI is not a political organization and had zero role in the pardon process,\u201d Wachsman said. \u201cTo imply otherwise is dangerous and false.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump himself downplayed any personal connection in a November interview with CBS\u2019s 60 Minutes. \u201cI have no idea who he is,\u201d the president said of Zhao. Trump added that he had been told Zhao was \u201ca victim, just like I was and just like many other people, of a vicious, horrible group of people in the Biden administration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additional attention has focused on Binance\u2019s lobbying efforts in Washington. NBC News reported during the week of the pardon that Binance had hired Checkmate Government Relations, a lobbying firm led by Charles McDowell, who is a friend of Donald Trump Jr.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to disclosures, the firm was paid $450,000 to lobby the White House and the Treasury Department on matters including \u201cexecutive relief\u201d and digital asset\u2011related financial services policy.<\/p>\n
Zhao denied that any lobbying effort was connected to his pardon. \u201cThere is a lot of media saying that there is some deal in place to get me the pardon,\u201d he told CNBC in Davos. \u201cAs far as I know, that does not exist at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Binance’s former CEO also said he has never spoken directly with President Trump. \u201cThe closest that I got to him was today when he was doing the Board of Peace session,\u201d Zhao said. \u201cI was in the audience, about 30 to 40 feet away from him.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At the time of writing, Binance Coin (BNB) was trading at $893, having recorded a 4% drop over the previous week. However, it is one of the few cryptocurrencies to have retained gains year-to-date, with an increase of 30% in that time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has pushed back against growing scrutiny surrounding his relationship with President Donald Trump, saying his ties to the president and his family have been widely misunderstood following Trump\u2019s decision to grant him a pardon last year. CZ Rejects Allegations Of Binance\u2019s Political Links Attention on Zhao intensified…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1732],"tags":[526,3010,2904,2906,271,585,274,1809,4582,3013,293,2474,1562,4583,296],"class_list":["post-9692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-binance","tag-binance","tag-binance-ceo","tag-binance-coin-bnb","tag-binance-news","tag-bnb","tag-bnb-price","tag-bnbusdt","tag-changpeng-zhao","tag-changpeng-zhao-cz","tag-cz-binance","tag-donald-trump","tag-donald-trump-news","tag-donald-trumps-administration","tag-former-binance-ceo","tag-world-liberty-financial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinsvalue.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinsvalue.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinsvalue.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinsvalue.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinsvalue.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coinsvalue.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinsvalue.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinsvalue.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinsvalue.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinsvalue.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}