WLFI founders meet Binance’s CZ in Abu Dhabi to discuss global crypto adoption

World Liberty Financial (WLFI) founders met with Binance’s former CEO, Changpeng Zhao, in Abu Dhabi.

According to WLFI, they met with the Binance founder to discuss growing global crypto adoption and how to establish industry standards and advance the future of cryptocurrency. WLFI co-founders Zach Witkoff, Zak Folkman, and Chase Hero announced the meeting via their official X (formerly Twitter) account, noting they were pushing crypto to the next level.

Recently, WLFI signed a Letter of Intent with the Pakistan Crypto Council to promote blockchain, decentralized finance, and stablecoin adoption in Pakistan. The WLFI team also met with senior Pakistani leaders, including the Prime Minister and ministers of finance, defense, and information.

Zhao is expecting traditional media outlets to negate his meeting with WLFI founders

Changpeng Zhao, in his X post, also confirmed he met with WLFI founders. However, he believes the traditional media would negate their meetup. He remarked, “It was great to see our friends Zach Witkoff and Bilal bin Saqib in Abu Dhabi today. I have a feeling the trad media will try to make up some negative story about this. But we keep building.”

Moreover, Bilal bin Saqib, CEO of the Pakistan Crypto Council and one of the meeting’s attendees commented on X, saying they had a great meeting, and added that real work will always speak louder than any headlines.

Many other commentators responding to CZ’s post encouraged the founders to continue building and remain focused on innovation. They even agreed with the former CEO that the media likes to spin negative stories about such interactions, asking them to ignore them.

However, some X users raised concerns about the founders’ meetup, especially given CZ’s history. One X user even argued that Zhao had claimed he was not negotiating deals with any of Trump’s officials, questioning the intent of their meeting with WLFI, which Trump’s family has a stake in.  

Some time back, the Wall Street Journal reported that Steve Witkoff, Trump’s chief negotiator for the Middle East and Ukraine and the father of World Liberty’s co-founder, was working out a deal with Binance on behalf of the Trump family.

Zhao, however, debunked the reports of a potential deal, claiming the Wall Street Journal’s information was inaccurate. He said he had no discussions with anyone on any Binance US deal. He added the WSJ article mirrored the Biden administration’s anti-crypto sentiment.

Zhao and WLFI are working with the Pakistan Crypto Council

Zhao has been working on meeting with crypto leaders and holding discussions on crypto infrastructure and the growing adoption. Earlier this month, he was appointed an advisor to Pakistan’s Crypto Council. 

CZ also recently held talks with Malaysian government officials on how crypto assets can drive economic innovation in the country. Additionally, Kyrgyzstan signed a Memorandum of Understanding with CZ  to build on its blockchain and crypto infrastructure.

In addition, like CZ, World Liberty Financial has ties with the Pakistan Crypto Council. The agency signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with the Council on April 26 to push for blockchain innovation and DeFi integration in Pakistan.

The two have agreed to introduce regulatory sandboxes to test blockchain-based financial products and venture into tokenizing real-world assets such as real estate. They will also expand stablecoin applications for trade and advise each other on blockchain regulatory trends and infrastructure. Bilal Bin Saqib also became an advisor to World Liberty Financial last week.

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