Trump’s family holds talks with Binance over stakes in Binance US, as CZ reportedly seeks pardon

WSJ reported that a Trump family representative held talks with Binance to take a financial stake in its U.S. arm. CZ  has also reportedly sought a pardon from President Trump. The Binance founder denied the report, saying it was a war on crypto.

The Trump family reportedly discussed acquiring a stake in Binance U.S. after its founder, Changpeng Zhao, sought pardon after his guilty plea in 2023. Zhao responded to the reports, saying he had not talked with anyone about a Binance US stake. He added that Binance has no business deals with WLF and that Binance did not buy any of the WLF coins.

Trump’s family holds talks with Binance 

A Wall Street Journal report claimed that people familiar with the matter said Trump’s family representatives discussed putting the president in business with Binance. The report indicated that Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who had served four months in prison after pleading guilty to money laundering charges, was pushing the Trump administration to grant him a pardon. 

According to WSJ, representatives of the Trump family have engaged in discussions about acquiring a financial stake in the U.S. arm of @binance.@cz_binance, looks like even more liquidity and firepower for aping into alts! 🔥😆 pic.twitter.com/QcCAsyO5Yr

— bnb_gem (@bnb_gem) March 13, 2025

The report added that Zhao remained Binance’s largest shareholder and that talks had begun after the crypto exchange reached out to Trump’s allies last year to strike a deal. The report claimed that the negotiations were part of the company’s strategy to return to the U.S. after its exile. 

It added that it is still unclear what stake the Trump family would take if the deal were concluded. The report suggested that the agreement could be contingent on a pardon. The report also highlighted some possibilities that included the deal would go through Wold Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture currently backed by the U.S. president. 

The  WSJ report indicated that Steve Witkoff, Trump’s longtime friend, was involved in the negotiations with Binance. It highlighted that an administration official had denied Witkoff’s involvement in the discussions and that he was divesting from his business interests. 

The report suggested that the Trump family increasingly benefited from his election victory. It added that the first lady, Melania Trump, signed a $40 million documentary deal. The report suggested that Trump sought financial settlements from companies he had sued earlier and that much of it had been used to fund his presidential library. 

Zhao responds to the report, saying, “It got its facts wrong.”

Changpeng Zhao responded that the WSJ report was inaccurate. He said that more than twenty people had told him they were contacted by the media outlet to confirm whether he had made a deal for a pardon. The founder said that he had not discussed a Binance US deal with anyone. He noted that he was the only person in US history who was ever sentenced to prison over one charge.

Zhao said the article was a motivated attack on the president and crypto. He added that it was a residual of the forces of the “war on crypto” from Biden’s administration. The founder expressed that he was always happy to make crypto great within the United States and the rest of the world.  Binance’s BNB token recorded a 4% increase after the Wall Street Journal report. 

Binance faced a lawsuit in the United States in 2023 that led to a $4.3 billion settlement with authorities. The suit claimed the exchange allowed money from terrorists to flow through its platform. Zhao resigned as Binance’s CEO as part of the settlement agreement and served four months in prison. 

The company recently began positioning itself for a possible return in the US. It established an internal working group under CEO Richard Teng to explore legal ways it can reenter the US market. 

The exchange announced that the United Arab Emirates state-backed investor MGX had acquired a minority stake in the crypto exchange for $2 billion.MGX’s managing director and CEO said the investment aligned with its commitment to advancing blockchain’s potential in digital finance. He said the need for secure and scalable blockchain infrastructure was necessary as institutional adoption accelerated.

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